The Elements
by Selune
Summary: COMPLETE Fantasy AU. Heero and his brothers -- Rafe, Leif, and Eric -- are new to Duos school. Duo immediately dislikes Heero for sharing a room with him, and things just get worse from there.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Heero stared out the window of the back seat of the car. It was another year, and he and his brothers were going to another school, a boarding school. Even the name of the school sounded stuffy -- Shady Oaks Preparatory Lyceum for Boys. Heero sighed.  
  
"Oh, cheer up, little brother," Rafe said. He scooted over closer to Heero and gave him a one-armed hug. "I know you miss your friends at the old school, but we *had* to move on. You know that. Besides, with your good looks and sweet nature, me and the guys will have to beat boys off of you with sticks -- again."  
  
Heero laughed at this. The image of his brothers beating *anyone* with sticks was too funny not to laugh at. Sure, the triplets -- Rafe, Leif, and Eric -- were big guys, but they were too sweet to ever seriously hurt anyone. He smiled up at Rafe -- even sitting down, his 6'4" brother towered over his 5'6" frame. "Thanks, Rafe, I need a good laugh."  
  
Heero turned his attention to the front of the car, toward Leif, who was driving. "How much longer until we get to our new school?" he asked. "I'm kinda tired."  
  
Heero groaned when Leif answered that they would arrive at their destination in approximately three hours. He turned back to the window, and was about to lay his head against the glass, when Rafe unbuckled Heero's seat belt and pulled him to lean against him.  
  
"I'm a good pillow," was Rafe's only explanation.  
  
Heero admitted that he, indeed, was a good pillow as he wrapped his arms around Rafe's waist and drifted off into slumber.  
  
***  
  
Duo Maxwell was mad, angry, *livid*. He had been going to Shady Oaks for eleven years, and for eleven years he had had a room to himself. Now, at the start of his junior year, he was going to have a roommate.  
  
Duo stalked around the room -- the room that *should* have been his alone. He picked up a picture frame and hurled it at the wall.  
  
He *needed* his own room, damnit! He didn't know how to live in such close quarters with anyone. Duo walked over to where the frame had landed and picked it up. It was unbroken. As soon as he set it back down on his dresser, there came a knock at the door.  
  
'Great, just great,' Duo thought. 'My roomie's here.' He plastered a huge grin on his face, and went to open the door.  
  
***  
  
Heero looked at his new roommate. He was nervous because this was the first time he had roomed with someone other than one of his brothers. Stupid school with their stupid "one grade to one floor" rule. He licked his lips and held out his hand -- the one that wasn't holding his suitcase -- to shake his roommate's.  
  
"Hi I'm --"  
  
"I know who you are," the boy said. "Heero, right?" Heero nodded. "Well, then, who's that?" The taller boy pointed behind them.  
  
Heero turned to see Rafe carrying his trunk to the room. "Oh, that's just my brother, Rafe. He's a senior, so he's living on the senior floor, in a triple with our brothers." Heero turned to help Rafe, but Rafe told him he could handle it; besides, they would look ridiculous if short little Heero tried to help giant Rafe.  
  
Heero admitted that they would look pretty silly, and instead stepped out of Rafe's way, so he could bring the trunk into the room. He looked around the room; it had two twin beds -- side by side -- two closets, two desks, and two dressers. There was a green rug on the hardwood floor between the beds. A quick check into an extra door confirmed to Heero that the room had its own, private bathroom.  
  
"Hey, Heero, where do you want this?" Rafe asked, pulling him away from his inspection of the room.  
  
"Umm...," Heero had to think. "At the foot of the bed?"  
  
Rafe nodded. He set the trunk down at the foot of the bed on the right, the one under the window. The other one had already been made, and Heero assumed that his roommate had already chosen that one.  
  
Heero thanked Rafe for helping him, and Rafe left, saying that Leif and Eric would kill or at least seriously maim him if he left them to carry in his huge mound of stuff. Heero laughed at this, and said goodbye to his brother.  
  
He shut the room door and turned around, startled when he found his roommate -- who was at least six feet tall -- standing right in front for him. "Yes?" he asked warily.  
  
The taller boy took a step back, and grinned at Heero. "I just realized that I never introduced myself." He stuck out his hand. "Duo Maxwell."  
  
Heero shook his hand -- again. Duo moved out of his way and he went to his bed to unpack. He was opening his suitcase when Duo spoke up again.  
  
"You know," he started, "you don't look old enough to be a junior."  
  
"Hn," Heero replied. He didn't know where that grunt came from; he just got shy around strangers, and when he got shy, he clammed up. Heero forced himself to elaborate on his "answer," so that Duo wouldn't think he was blowing him off. "I'm not actually old enough. I mean, I skipped a grade, and I was barely old enough to even be in that grade. I just turned fifteen."  
  
"Oh," Duo said. If Heero listened hard enough, he could clearly hear the "Great. Not only do I have a roommate that I don't want, but he's a kid," but he didn't like listening in on people's thoughts, so it came through kind of fuzzy.  
  
Heero understood why Duo didn't like him, even though he himself had never disliked anyone. He knew what it was like to be put in a situation he didn't want to be in -- was in one right now, in fact -- but he hoped the two of them could become friends. Duo seemed nice. Plus, he was kind of cute.  
  
Selune 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), others to be named Rating: R Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo-bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it)  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Heero finished unpacking and set up his laptop. He put away all his clothing and essentials, but he left the most important thing -- the book -- in his trunk. He put a lock on it and would have sealed it if Duo hadn't been there. As it was, the padlock would have to do for now.  
  
Heero glanced at the clock on his desk, his own that he had set exactly with the school's. It was 5:45, almost supper. Heero thought about asking Duo if he would show him where cafeteria was, but then decided that his roommate wouldn't want him tagging along. Besides, he had to contact his parents first.  
  
He turned on his computer, and waited for the start menu to come on. The screen popped up, and he signed on to the Internet -- AOL, if Heero believed in a devil, this ISP would be the spawn of Satan. His mailbox was overflowing with emails from old friends, but he ignored them for now. Instead, he opted to write mail. The new window came up, and Heero started typing.  
  
'Mum and Da,' he wrote. 'Me and the guys have safely arrived at our new school. We miss you dearly, but we understand why you have to be away from us. It's even more dangerous for all six of us to be together than just the four of *us*.  
  
'Anyway, due to a stupid school rule, I am on a completely different floor from Rafe, Leif, and Eric. I'm on the third floor -- they're on the second -- so it still shouldn't be too hard to get out at night. Other than that, everything's great; everyone seems really nice.  
  
'Bye. Your loving son, Heero.'  
  
Heero sent the mail and logged off. He felt bad about not telling his parents about Duo, but what was he supposed to say? That his roommate hated him because he had serious mommy issues? Heero wasn't going to tell them that; they might worry.  
  
Heero glanced around the room and was somewhat surprised to find that Duo had already left. He guessed that solved the problem on whether or not to ask the boy to show him to the cafeteria. He shrugged in shoulders and walked out of the room, sure that *someone* would give him directions.  
  
When Heero stepped out into the hall, he bumped into someone and fell on his butt. He looked up from his spot on the floor to see a tall blond boy offering Heero his hand, to help him up. He let the boy -- whose pale blond hair fell in waves to his shoulders -- pull him to his feet. When he stood up, Heero could see that the other boy was tall -- 6', maybe 6'1".  
  
"Hi," he said, lamely. "Sorry about that."  
  
"Don't be," the other said. "It was entirely my fault. My name is Milliardo Winner. Whatever might yours be?"  
  
"Heero. Yuy." he replied, growing uncomfortable. Milliardo was still holding his hand. Heero tried to subtly pull his hand away from Milliardo, but the taller boy -- man? -- wouldn't seem to take the hint.  
  
"I do not think I've seen you around, Heero Yuy," Milliardo said, finally releasing Heero's hand. "I would never forget a face as lovely as yours, so you must be new. I am sure that you don't know the way to the cafeteria yet. Would you allow me to show you where it is?"  
  
Heero nodded his consent. He was flattered that Milliardo called him lovely, even though he was surprised that anyone -- especially a guy -- would openly hit on him. Milliardo, who Heero was now pretty sure had to be at least twenty, put his hand on the boy's back, and led him to the dining area.  
  
***  
  
Duo was in the cafeteria. He had left before his new roommate could ask to come down with him. Duo would be nice to him in public, but he was going to find a way to get Heero Yuy out of his room.  
  
Duo's friend laughed at something. "What's so funny?" he asked Quatre.  
  
"It looks like my brother has found some fresh meat," he replied, pointing to where Milliardo stood with Heero. Milliardo was a resident advisor/student teacher here at Shady Oaks. Every year -- Milliardo had also been a student at the school -- he would chase some new kid that would always end up being his "trophy boyfriend." This year it looked like he had his eyes set on Heero.  
  
"That's my roommate," Duo said sullenly. This was just great! Duo had been planning to use Milliardo -- who was the resident advisor on the junior floor -- to help him scare off Heero, make him request a room change.  
  
"Who's your roommate?" Duo's best friend Wufei asked, as he and their other friend Trowa came over to the table. Trowa greeted them all with a smile, his eyes lingering longer than necessary on Quatre.  
  
"Oh, nobody important," Duo answered. "Just that short brunette over by Milliardo."  
  
Wufei looked over to where Duo pointed, and gasped. "I know that kid," Wufei said. "He's the first guy I ever kissed.  
  
***  
  
Heero was standing in the cafeteria with Milliardo -- Mr. Winner, he was a teacher, kind of -- looking for his brothers. He couldn't see them because everyone was so *tall*. He felt like a shrimp among all those humongus people.  
  
"Is there something the matter?" Milliardo asked him.  
  
"Yeah. I can't find my brothers. I'm too short." Heero said. "Can you look for them for me? They look like me, only their hair is darker and they're impossibly tall. Like everyone else at this school."  
  
Milliardo chuckled at that, and said he would look for Heero's brothers. At that moment, Heero spotted Eric coming out of the line. "Never mind. I found one," he said. "Thanks for showing me where the cafeteria is."  
  
As he was walking away, he felt something touch his butt, but he ignored it. After all, who would want to touch him there? It wasn't like he was particularly good looking or anything.  
  
Selune 


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, others to be named Rating: R Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo-bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it)  
  
The Elements Chapter 3  
  
Milliardo watched as Heero walked away. He couldn't resist the urge to pass his hand over the boy's firm ass. Heero was gorgeous beyond belief and quiet, a perfect boyfriend candidate in Milliardo's opinion.  
  
Milliardo had seen the slight junior when he first came on the floor earlier that day, and he had known right then that he would make Heero his own. The feelings of lust and wanting surged in him even more after meeting the boy.  
  
Heero was the perfect combination of looks and personality. His skin was the color of honey, his eyes the hue of a sea at storm, and his lips appeared as though bee-stung. But his personality -- oh, his personality. The boy was kind and quiet beyond belief -- obedient to a fault. Miliardo had learned this when Heero refused to just jerk his hand out of Milliardo's when he had held it just a *little* too long.  
  
Milliardo smiled to himself as he left the cafeteria to find more information on the delicious young boy. Oh, yes, Heero Yuy would be his.  
  
***  
  
Duo spit out his milk at Wufei's revelation. "You kissed him?!" he asked. "When? Why?"  
  
Wufei leaned back in his seat and smirked, not saying anything.  
  
"Oh, come on, 'Fei," Quatre demanded. "I want to know *everything*. Tell me, tell me, tell me!"  
  
"I'm also a little curious," Trowa said.  
  
Wufei smiled then, and Duo knew he was going to break down and tell them. Wufei never told them anything until Trowa -- who always asked last -- wanted to know.  
  
"It happened the summer after eighth grade," Wufei said. "It was at camp. Heero was in my cabin, the twelve to fourteen year-olds' cabin. His brothers were there, too, in the fifteen to seventeen cabin.  
  
"Anyway, it was a month into camp, and everybody but me and him were gone. I was listening to my C.D. player, and he was doing something -- I can't remember what. He came and sat down on my bed, extremely close to me.  
  
"I took my headphones off and sat up. He was looking at me with those big blue eyes of his, and he had his hands in his lap. Suddenly, he just crawled into my lap, and started kissing me. I, of course, kissed back. I mean, when someone *that* gorgeous is in your lap, you don't say no.  
  
"That's when older brothers decided to come visit him. They walked in right as I stuck my hand under his shirt. Oh, they were mad. After that, they had him switched back to the nine to eleven cabin -- he was still eleven at the time. They said I was a 'bad influence'."  
  
Duo listened quietly to the whole story, but burst out laughing at this. "Of *course* they called you a 'bad influence'. You were sticking your tongue down an eleven year-old's throat," Duo said. Then he had a great idea. "Maybe his brothers would make him change rooms if they labeled *me* a 'bad influence'." Duo almost didn't notice Wufei leaving the table, he was so caught up in how to become a 'bad influence'. "Hey, Wu-man, where ya going?"  
  
"Maxwell, if you saw *your* walking wet dream after two years, wouldn't you at least say 'Hi'?" Wufei asked as he walked over to the table where Heero and his brothers were.  
  
***  
  
Heero sat at the table where Rafe, Leif, and Eric were. Rafe had gotten him food when he went through the line; his brothers knew that he wouldn't eat if they didn't make him. It was kind of hard to eat if your food kept screaming at you, he always tried to tell them.  
  
Heero was startled when a shadow fell over him. He looked up to see a vaguely familiar Chinese boy. "Hello," he said slowly, trying to figure out who this was. Suddenly, it came to him. "Wufei, how have you been?"  
  
Wufei answered that he had been good, and asked if he could talk to Heero alone. Heero had noticed the dark glares his brothers had been giving Wufei, so he agree to speak with him away from everyone.  
  
The two walked out of the cafeteria and into a deserted stairwell. Everyone was eating, so they didn't have to worry about anybody overhearing them. Heero noticed that Wufei suddenly turned shy when they were officially *alone*.  
  
"So?" he prompted Wufei.  
  
"So, what?" Wufei asked, fidgeting.  
  
"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" he replied. Wufei opened his mouth to say something, but Heero interrupted him. "No, it's not stupid. Just ask me; the answer will be yes." Heero smiled up at the other boy, who was only three inches taller than him.  
  
Wufei took in a big breath of air, and smiled down at Heero. "Thanks," he said. "Heero, will you go out with me tomorrow -- Saturday -- night? Say, 7:30?"  
  
Heero agreed, and reached up to give Wufei a peck on the lips. Then, he left, leaving a speechless Wufei behind him.  
  
***  
  
Duo was angry, again. Wufei, that traitor, had gone to befriend the enemy. Probably wanted to fuck Heero up his sweet, little ass.  
  
No! Duo was not going to thing about that -- he was *not* gay, and he did *not* think Heero's ass was sweet. His mother had told him he wasn't gay, so he wasn't. Duo knew his mother would hate him even more that she did if he was a *faggot*, and she already hated him enough to send him to a boarding school halfway across the country for eleven years. So, no, he wasn't gay, and no, he didn't think his roommate was good looking at all. Nope, none, nada.  
  
Well, maybe just a *little* bit -- in a completely non-gay way.  
  
But that wasn't the point! The point was that Duo had to make Wufei stop liking Heero, so he could help him get the boy out of his room.. Duo pondered on this, until he had a brilliant idea.  
  
Maybe he didn't need to get Heero *out* of his room, but *into* Wufei's!  
  
Selune 


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of  
  
their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of  
  
Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo-bastardization (don't worry, he  
  
gets over it)  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Heero ran up to his room, not wanting to face his brothers after leaving them to talk to Wufei. He knew they didn't approve of Wufei, but Heero liked him. He'd always had a thing for guys with long hair.  
  
He reached the room and hoped that Duo wasn't back yet -- he really didn't feel like dealing with the older boy right now. He reached into his pants' pocket for his room key, and cursed when it wasn't there.  
  
Heero looked around the hall, and, finding no one, put his hand over the doorknob. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the lock. His mind's eye delved deep, stopping at the latch. Heero asked it to move, and it did, unlocking the door. He opened the door and went into the room, satisfied that he had done at least *one* thing right that day. But it would've been kind of pathetic if he hadn't been able to get the door open. After all, the doorknob was made of metal, which came from the earth, and he *was* Earth.  
  
Heero shrugged off his thoughts and walked over to his trunk, sitting down in the floor in front of it. He unlocked it with the key and opened the lid. He reached inside, and lifted out the book. It was an ancient book, had been in Heero's family for countless generations, and now he was its keeper. The book always went to the youngest, and that was him.  
  
Heero hefted the heavy book in his arms and went to sit on his bed, not bothering to lock the trunk or even close the lid. He sat Indian-style with the book in his lap. He opened it to a random page, and his eyes fell on the image of his mother. He traced his fingers down the line of her jaw. Goddess, how he missed her. He turned the page, and saw the portrait of his father. His father looked like Legolas in the "Lord of the Rings" movie, with his aristocratic face, his long blond hair, and his pointed ears.  
  
Heero reached up and felt of his own ears, the points at the top always made him fell closer to his father. He sighed, and turned to the last page -- the page about him and his brothers. 'The Elements,' it said at the top. 'The Elements are ancient creatures, but mortal. They re-incarnate after death, usually in the form of siblings. There are five Elements -- Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Spirit. the are most often born in this order.  
  
'As a result of their tremendous power, the Elements must constantly move.  
  
Legend has it that if they should stay in one area for more than a year, the magic buildup would result in a portal to other worlds being opened. These other worlds are supposedly hostile, and the creatures there would take great pleasure in destroying our world.  
  
'At the time of this writing, Fire, Water, and Air have been born. They are my children. I am currently pregnant with Earth and Spirit.'  
  
The page was signed 'Queen Ayiana of the Sidhe Faeries and the Woodland Elves." His mother -- queen of the faeries by birthright, and of the elves by marriage.  
  
Heero closed the book on his lap. He laughed dryly at the last paragraph his mother had written. If he didn't laugh, he was going to cry.  
  
Queen Ayiana had indeed been correct about carrying Earth and Spirit. She had been pregnant with twins -- Heero and his sister, Kali. Kali had died in the womb, leaving Heero to absorb her power. This made Heero two Elements -- Earth and Spirit.  
  
Heero sighed; he didn't want to think about this right now. He wanted to think about his date with Wufei tomorrow. It was going to be his first *real* date.  
  
Heero got up from his bed and gently placed his family's Book of Shadows back in the trunk. He closed the lid and locked it before going over to his closet to pick out what he was going to wear tomorrow night. He pushed through the numerous uniforms he had in there -- he'd picked them up when they checked into the school -- but he couldn't find anything suitable.  
  
Finally, he found the perfect outfit. The jeans were a dark rinse blue, slung low enough that he would have to wear briefs instead of his usual boxers. The shirt was white; it had long sleeves and said "Leo" -- his zodiac sign --on it in big blue letters. Both articles were tight enough that they would showcase his muscles, but loose enough that he would be able to move and not be labeled "slutty."  
  
Heero knew that Rafe had probably listened to his conversation with Wufei, and that by now all three of his brothers knew about his date tomorrow night. Rafe was Air and had most likely manipulated his element to bring Wufei and Heero's conversation right to his ears. Heero also knew that if his brothers *did* know of his date, at least one of them would follow him and Wufei, so he didn't want to look slutty. If he looked *too* good, Leif -- the oldest of the triplets, and Fire -- wouldn't let him go.  
  
***  
  
Duo burst into his room. He had left the cafeteria after Wufei came back to the table with stars in his eyes and told them that he had a date with Heero Yuy. He wouldn't -- couldn't -- listen to his best friend wax poetic about another guy. Especially not one Heero Yuy.  
  
Duo realized that his plan of retreating to the sanctity of his room wasn't a good one when his eyes fell on Heero's bed, Heero's desk, and finally, the problem himself. Duo glared at him, putting away his clothes as Duo went to sit on his bed.  
  
Heero had been the first boy Wufei had kissed -- the little slut had made his best friend gay. he was trying to make *him* gay, too. Duo could tell by the way he was strutting around the room, being pretty like a girl.  
  
Duo heard Heero say something, and realized that the boy was talking to him. "What?" he asked.  
  
"I said, I'm going to take a shower. Do you need in the bathroom first?" Heero repeated.  
  
Duo shook his head, noticing for the first time the towel and nightclothes in Heero's hand. "No, go ahead."  
  
Heero nodded at this, going into the bathroom and shutting the door. Duo waited several seconds before rising off the bed and walking over to the picture he had hung on the wall. He took the picture down, and placed it on the floor, peering into the hole it had been covering.  
  
***Lemon***  
  
CENSORED--uncensored version at gundam-wing-universe.net  
  
***End Lemon***  
  
He stormed into the room and threw open the shower door. Heero turned around, startled, as the water continued to rain on him. Duo didn't wait for him to recover from his shock before he grabbed his hair and pulled him from the shower. He pushed Heero away from him, and the boy's head slammed into the base of the toilet.  
  
"How do you like that, queerbait?" Duo asked him, straddling his legs over the boy's upturned ass. Did you think you could try to turn me gay and get way with it? Huh? Did you?" Duo grabbed Heero's hair and banged his head into the floor. "Answer me when I'm talking to you!"  
  
Duo heard the whore saying something, and leaned down closer to hear. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please, don't hurt me. I'll leave you alone. I'll leave your friends alone. Hell, I'll change rooms. Just don't kill me." Duo heard him say.  
  
When Duo hear the word "kill", he noticed what he was doing. He saw the blood on the tile floor -- Heero's blood, that he had put there. He crawled off Heero, and retreated to the other side of the room. Duo noticed that Heero retreated to the corner behind the toilet.  
  
"I'm sorry," Duo offered lamely.  
  
"S'okay," Heero answered through hitching sobs. His lip was cut, probably from one of the bolts holding the toilet to the floor; and right above his eyebrow he was bleeding, probably for the same reason. Blood was matting in his hair from when he had slammed into the toilet the first time.  
  
Duo stood up and walked over to Heero, who cowered when he got near. "I'm really sorry," Duo said, before leaving the bathroom.  
  
***  
  
Heero watched from his place on the floor as Duo walked out of the room. After he was gone, Heero jumped up to lock the door, before remembering that the latch was broken. Not wanting to reveal himself as non-human, he dragged Duo's hamper, full of clothes, in front of the door.  
  
Then he jumped back in the shower to wash the blood off. He did it quickly to prevent another attack. He got out of the shower, and started to bandage his wounds. It was odd, but he didn't hate Duo; he felt sorry for him.  
  
He knew he should loathe his would-be rapist, but he just couldn't. Sure, the remembered feel of Duo's jeans-clad erection filled him with fear, but Duo didn't go through with it. He didn't rape Heero, though, even when he was holding all the cards and had all the advantages. Besides, it wasn't Duo's fault he was completely homophobic and self-hating -- it was his mother's.  
  
Heero knew that Duo would never forgive himself for what he had done, what he had been about to do. He got dressed and walked out of the bathroom, putting the hamper back where it had been and turning off the radio. He saw that Duo was asleep and sighed with relief; this would make his job so much easier.  
  
Heero approached Duo cautiously. When the boy didn't stir, he lay one hand on Duo's jawline. Then, he whispered one word, "Forget," before sealing it with a kiss to Duo's forehead.  
  
He walked over to his own bed and climbed in. Heero set his internal clock for midnight, when he was supposed to meet his brothers. He closed his eyes and went to sleep, determined not to let them know what happened here.  
  
Selune 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo-bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it)  
  
The Elements Chapter 5  
  
Heero awoke at twelve on the dot, after having already been woken up twice already -- once by a tall guy with funny hair looking for Duo at 10:30, and once by Milliardo doing room checks at 11:00. Heero got out of bed, and went to check on Duo. The older boy was having a nightmare, one involving himself, his father, and a closet.  
  
With a heavy heart, Heero ignored Duo's pain; he didn't have enough time to deal with it right then. Instead, he went to the window. He kneeled on his bed and lifted the pane. He put his hands on the sill, and peered into the darkness. His brothers weren't there yet.  
  
Heero sighed and closed in his eyes in concentration. He delved into the earth, looking for...something. Finally, he found it -- seeds. Heero concentrated on one seed and imagined it growing, growing, growing. The yellow tulip burst forth from the ground, steadily growing to an impossible height.  
  
Heero felt when the flower reached its maximum adult height, and pushed it to grow more, taller. The tulip passed the first story window, the second, and finally stopped at the third. Heero let go of the psychic grip he had on the proportionally correct, three story high flower.  
  
He opened his eyes and stepped onto the ledge. Wearing only pajama bottoms and a tank top, he jumped from it and landed on a huge petal. Heero closed his eyes and shrunk the flower, for once glad of his low body weight. If he had weighed any more, the petal he was on would have dropped him before he could safely step off. Heero stopped shrinking the flower when it was normal-sized, so he could find it when he returned.  
  
Heero heard voices, and walked toward them. He saw that it was Rafe, Leif, and Eric coming to get him, and he ran toward them. Suddenly, he wanted to be as far away from his room as possible. Heero glomped onto Rafe, and nodded a greeting at the other two.  
  
Rafe pried Heero from him, and the four brothers set off into the woods surrounding the school, looking for the doorway.  
  
***  
  
Trowa sneaked out of the room that he shared with Quatre -- his beloved, though the blond didn't know it -- by means of a rope ladder. He climbed out the window and down the ladder. Once he was on the ground, he pulled on the rope, causing his escape method to fall down after him. He folded it up and laid it in the hollow of a nearby tree -- though not his own tree.  
  
Trowa set off on the path that would take him to *his* tree, almost running into four boys. Luckily, they didn't see him, and he hid behind one of the elms placed sporadically around the school grounds. Trowa could feel the power of the boys -- especially the little one's -- and was compelled to follow them. He stalked behind them, blending into the shadows, as they entered the forest.  
  
***  
  
Heero and his brothers had been walking over two hours when, suddenly, they came upon it -- a grove big enough to house the portal. It wasn't yet time to do anything, wasn't the darkest part of the night, so Heero sat on a tree stump, wincing at the pain it had felt when it died.  
  
Rafe came over to him, and caressed the bandage over Heero's eyebrow. "So," he said, "are you going to tell us what happened, or do we have to assume the worst?"  
  
"Did somebody hurt you?" Leif demanded.  
  
"'Cause if they did, we'll kill 'em," Eric said, punching one fist into the palm of his other hand.  
  
"No, no," Heero replied, trying to calm his brothers. "It was nothing like that. I just fell, after taking a shower. You know, I dripped water all over the place, and then slipped on it. You guys know how clumsy I am."  
  
Rafe, Leif, and Eric agreed with him on that. Heero could be quite clumsy sometimes -- at least, that's what he let them think. People seemed to like hitting him for some reason.  
  
Heero heard a twig snap, and looked up. "You can come out now," he said. When no one emerged form the trees, Heero rose from the stump and walked to where he had heard the sound.  
  
At first, he didn't see anyone, but on closer inspection, he found the boy with the funny hair from earlier. He was curled up on the ground, crying. "Melanie, Melanie, Melanie," he sobbed. "Oh, Goddess, Melanie. Why her? Why Melanie?"  
  
Heero sunk to the ground beside the boy his mind identified as Trowa, and pulled him into his arms. He tried to soothe the grieving boy as his brothers stood over them. Heero stroked the boy's hair, becoming more comfortable in his mind at each pass.  
  
Trowa was a half-human/half-tree nymph hybrid. He had been coming into the forest to check on his tree -- all tree nymphs had one tree that they had to protect -- when he saw Heero, Rafe, Leif, and Eric. Curious and a bit suspicious, Trowa had followed the brothers into the forest. When they reached the grove, Trowa had been afraid that they were going to harm his tree, a big majestic elm whose care he had taken over when its previous protector had passed on.  
  
Then he saw the tree stump. It had been one of his cousin's -- Melanie's. He had fallen to the ground, grieving at his lost friend, because when a tree died, so did its nymph.  
  
Heero broke free from Trowa's mind, and held him closer. The poor nymph's cousin had died; he needed as much comfort as Heero could give him.  
  
***  
  
Trowa felt himself be embraced by a warm presence. He opened his eyes and found himself looking into the warm blue eyes of Duo's roommate.  
  
The boy -- Trowa couldn't remember his name -- smiled down at him. He looked paler than he had earlier, but still had the bandages on his face. "Are you okay?" he asked Trowa, and Trowa nodded. "Good. Listen, we're going to need to know why you followed us."  
  
'Us?' Trowa thought, then he remembered the other three.  
  
"Umm, I'm Heero Yuy," the boy said, "and this is Rafael -- call him Rafe -- and Leif, and Eric. Now, why were you following us?"  
  
"Not them, just you," Trowa replied. "I don't know why, but I was drawn to follow you. I *had* to."  
  
Trowa saw the boy chew his lip, which already had a cut on it. "Okay," Heero said. "I'll take that. After all, you're a tree nymph. Makes sense. Okay."  
  
One of Heero's brothers came up behind them. "It's almost three, we have to get started." Trowa saw and felt when Heero nodded his head. The boy got up and laid Trowa's head back on the ground, leaving him to wonder how Heero knew he was a nymph, and why it would make sense for him to be drawn to Heero.  
  
Selune 


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, others to be named Rating: R Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it)  
  
The Elements Chapter 6  
  
Heero stood at the north end of the grove he and his brothers had determined to be the point where the portal would open. Eric stood to his left, in the east, with Rafe in the south, and Leif in the west. The boys faced into the center of the circle they had formed, looking across at their complements.  
  
Without saying a word, the boys, acting as one, turned their right palms down toward the earth. They walked deosil on the outside of the circle, trace magics flowing from their palms, further concreting their circle. They walked -- no, more like glided -- around the circle, finally ending up where they had started: Heero in the north, Eric in the east, Rafe in the south, and Leif in the west. Then, they did the same thing widdershins, closing the circle and protecting it from outside sources. More importantly, protecting the world from what was *inside* of it.  
  
Heero, as always, started the incantation. He raised his arms to the sky, palms pointing upward, and cried out, "Here stands the doorway to the portal to worlds beyond this one. In the name of the Lord and Lady, I call upon the Guardian of the North to help me seal this door. In the name of Tir, I invoke thee!"  
  
"In the name of the Lord and Lady, I call upon the Guardian of the East to help me seal this door." Eric cried, his hands also pointing to the sky. "In the name of Abhainn, I invoke thee!"  
  
"In the name of the Lord and Lady, I call upon the Guardian of the South to help me seal this door," Rafe called, his body stance mimicking that of his brothers. "In the name of Aile, I invoke thee!"  
  
Finally, Leif called out, "In the name of the Lord and Lady, I call upon the Guardian of the West to help me seal this door. In the name of the Bradhadair, I invoke thee!"  
  
"In the name of Anam, I invoke thee!" Heero yelled. He lowered his hands and brought forth an athame from his pants; his brothers did the same. The four, as a group, drew their athames across their left forearms. They let the blood drip into waiting chalices, which they then threw into the center of the circle. "Where our blood gathers, let the doorway open. In the name of those who walk between the mortal and immortal coils, we beseech thee, open."  
  
The ground where the broken goblets were began to burn; white fire leaped higher and higher into the air, touching and harming nothing. The magical flames grew to six feet in height, then began to spread outward. As it spread, a tear began in the middle. The rip spread as the fire did, resulting in a six-foot in diameter ring of fire encircling the vision of the hell beyond it.  
  
"By the power of Tir --"  
  
" -- of Abhainn -- "  
  
" -- of Aile -- "  
  
" -- of Bradhadair --"  
  
" -- and of Anam, I command thee to close." As fast as the portal opened, it sealed, returning a false stillness to the air. "By the power of the God and Goddess, I command that for the period of one year and one day, this doorway and all other doorways of its ilk shall be as this one is: dormant. In the name of the Gods, so mote it be."  
  
"So mote it be," Heero's brothers echoed.  
  
***  
  
Trowa watched, mesmerized, as the Yuy's performed their ritual. He realized who they were within the first ten seconds of it. He laughed with joy, before remembering that he was supposed to be sad. He forced his face into a frown as the *Elements* cleaned up after their ceremony. They broke the circle, wiping away all of the trace magics, picked up the broken chalices, put away their knives, and bandaged their arms.  
  
They seemed to have forgotten that Trowa was there at all. He wasn't about to let that happen, so he walked over to Heero -- who he wasn't able to take his eyes off of -- and began apologizing profusely for his earlier actions. "Heero," he began. "Heero, I just want to say that I'm sorry for following you earlier, and for thinking that you and your brothers might be trying to do something bad. Can you ever forgive me?"  
  
"There's nothing to forgive," Heero replied. "You were just trying to protect your tree; any nymph would've done the same." Trowa lowered his gaze to the ground in shame. Even if Heero said it was okay, he still felt repentant. "But, if it makes you feel any better, I forgive you."  
  
Trowa looked at the boy with pure, unadulterated joy radiating in his eyes. He didn't know why, but Heero's approval and absolution meant everything to him.  
  
"Umm, since you do this a lot -- sneak out, I mean -- how do you usually sneak back in?" Heero asked him.  
  
"Well, I usually walk back in through the lobby after it gets light out, and tell anyone who asks that I went jogging." Trowa eyed Heero's attire -- tank top, pajama bottoms, and bare feet. "You can tell them that you took a walk."  
  
"Okay," Heero agreed. He started to walk away, when he turned toward the taller boy. "You want to walk with me?" Trowa, of course agreed. When Trowa caught up with him, Heero whispered to him, "I could never forget one of my children."  
  
***  
  
Heero walked through the lobby, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. With Rafe, Leif, and Eric returning to their room through the window, he only had Trowa to corroborate his story. He tried to walk at a normal pace back to his room, and almost succeeded; he only walked a *little* faster than normal.  
  
Heero sighed in relief when he saw that Duo was still asleep when he got to the room. The older boy would probably sleep for a couple more hours because of the spell that Heero put on him. Even so, Heero pushed the hamper up against the bathroom door when he went to take a quick shower to wash the dirt and mud from his body. He got in and got out in three minutes flat, afraid that Duo would burst into the room and attack him again.  
  
Heero shook the morbid thoughts of Duo pressing against him through his clothing. Instead, he got dressed in the school uniform -- tan khakis, and a white button-down shirt -- but left the jacket. After all, it was Saturday. He put on his shoes and left the room, remembering to take his key with him this time.  
  
He skipped down the stairs, and strode through the lobby to the cafeteria, where he was meeting his brothers for breakfast. All three of them were there, faces looking freshly scrubbed. Even though they had beaten the rush, and there was hardly a line, Rafe got Heero's food for him. It was tradition, and they weren't about to break it now.  
  
Breakfast went by quickly, with Heero, as usual, not eating much. He ate all of his eggs and drank all of his milk, though, because they didn't scream at him like the other food. Taking them didn't hurt the creatures they came from, so they weren't in pain.  
  
Rafe made him talk about Wufei and where they were going on their date. Then, of course, Leif went through the spiel of "if Wufei so much as harms *one* hair on my precious Hee-chan's head, I will grind him to dust with his own ponytail."  
  
All in all, a normal breakfast.  
  
Heero finished eating and excused himself from the table. He walked out of the cafeteria and halfway through the lobby when he heard the familiar screeching voice of Relena Winner.  
  
HEEROOO!"  
  
Selune 


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements Chapter 7  
  
Heero smiled as he saw the familiar blonde hair flowing past his best friend as she ran toward him. "HEEROOO!" she shrieked in her ear piercing way as she tackled him.  
  
The two fell to the ground, the momentum of her attack causing them to roll. They ended up with Relena hovering over Heero, somehow facing the outside entrance to the lobby.  
  
"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" she squealed, hugging Heero tightly. "I can't believe you're here!" She dropped him and he fell back, catching himself on his elbows. Relena stood up and offered him her hand. He took it and rose from the floor. "And I can't believe you didn't tell me you were coming." Saying this, she pouted.  
  
"Relena?" Heero asked, rubbing his head; the knock he had gotten on it when she tackled him to the floor hurt. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at some girl's boarding school?"  
  
Relena ignored him. Instead, she pace back and forth in little circles, talking and gesticulating wildly with her hands. "So, my best friend -- that'd be you, Heero dear -- comes to live in a boy's boarding schools *right next* to my girl's one, and does he tell me? Oh, no. Who, instead, do I hear this tidbit from? None other than my brother and his R.A., Milliardo Winner." She put her hands on her hips and glared at Heero. "Why didn't you tell me you were moving to Shady Oaks?"  
  
Heero looked at her, trying to follow what she was saying. "Huh?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Haven't you been listening?" Relena said. She grabbed his shoulders and punctuated each word with a shake. "You're going to Oaks for Boys. I'm going to Oaks for Girls. We're going to get to see each other all the time now." She stopped shaking him, and pulled him into an embrace. "Isn't that great?"  
  
A smile broke out on Heero's face as he finally comprehended what Relena was saying. "Yes, it is," he replied, as he realized that he could talk to her, his best friend who he hadn't seen in person for four years, any time he wanted.  
  
Heero looked away from Relena, and noticed the crowd gathering around them -- it wasn't every day a girl tackled somebody in the middle of the lobby. "Uhh, how about we go somewhere more private, to talk?" he asked her.  
  
She looked at the crowd around them before nodding. "Okay," she said, and he took her hand and led her out the door.  
  
***  
  
Heero took Relena to the grove; it was safe because of the closing ritual he and his brothers had performed. They sat on a fallen log far away from Melanie's tree.  
  
"Are you okay?" Relena asked him with concern, eyeing the log.  
  
"Yes," he replied. "This one died of natural causes, neither she nor her nymph feel anymore pain."  
  
Relena nodded her head. Heero could see that she was trying to understand. He knew that, as a human, she never would.  
  
"So, what's wrong?" he asked her. She tried to say something, but he interrupted her. "Don't give me this bull about 'There's nothing wrong.' I know there is. I know that you're happy to see me and everything, but there's something upsetting you. I can feel it, tell me."  
  
"Aah... Nothing's wrong," she said. Heero wasn't going to let Relena skirt the issue. He had told her what he was when they were seven and she had caught him growing a flower in his hand, so he knew she knew he was telling the truth when he said he could tell that something was wrong.. Hell, she probably thought he knew exactly what was going on -- and he did.  
  
Relena took a deep breath, probably trying to compose what she was going to say. Heero allowed her, knowing that she need to do this before she could talk, and that she needed to talk.  
  
"I told you about Hilde, right?" Heero nodded his head in agreement. "I told you about how I met her at the park, after breaking my ankle. About how she -- literally -- swept me off my feet and took me to the emergency room to get it set. About how she's the love of my life." Relena looked at Heero with tears in her eyes. "Did I ever tell you about Noin? About how *she's* the love of Hilde's life? About how *she* -- not literally -- swept Hilde off her feet? Or about how she took my Hildie from me?"  
  
Relena burst out crying as Heero scooped her slightly shorter, somewhat heavier -- because of the extra weight in the chesticles -- form into his arms. "Why doesn't she want me?" Relena sobbed into his chest.  
  
Heero thought of Hilde, seeking the answer. Her form came into his mind, as did another. He instinctively knew this other to be Lucrezia Noin. He could see the faint traces of a link between the two girls, and he narrowed in on that. The lines running from one girl to the other grew in intensity, finally revealing themselves to be what he had feared -- soul links.  
  
Heero dropped his concentration and turned to look at Relena, nestled in his arms. He didn't want to give her the bad news, so, instead, he sought her soul link. He found the line and traveled it, finally coming to its end on one Dorothy Catalonia. He dropped off the line and turned to Relena. "I'm sorry," he said, knowing he shouldn't mention it. "You should forget about Hilde."  
  
"Why?" Relena asked, rising from his embrace and wiping her eyes on her sleeves. "What do you know that I don't?"  
  
"Much," he answered. "Suffice it to say, Hilde and Lucretzia are meant to be together. Trying to keep Hilde to yourself will only cause you heartache."  
  
Relena rose from the log, and turned to leave. Heero could feel her heart breaking from his revelation. "Look for the girl with the forked eyebrows," he called to her, cursing himself for being weak. He wasn't supposed to do that, wasn't supposed to tell people who their soulmates were.  
  
Relena stopped, and turned back to Heero. "What?" she asked, confused.  
  
"Look for the girl with the forked eyebrows," he repeated. Then, before he could tell her anything else she wasn't supposed to know, he ran past her further into the forest.  
  
Selune 


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements Chapter 8  
  
Heero ran away from Relena, far into the forest. He ran all out for as long as he could until he collapsed, panting, lungs afire, on the mossy earthen floor. He took a deep breath of air as he tried to come to terms with -- to justify -- practically telling his best friend who her soulmate was. He shouldn't have done it, shouldn't have used his Spirit magic at all to help her deal with this. He *should* have done the usual best friend thing: pat on the back, hug, "she was never good enough for you anyway," "you'll find somebody better." He should have done that, but he hadn't. Heero had told Relena things that she wasn't supposed to know about her destined, things he didn't even know about his.  
  
Heero knew very little about his soulmate, though not for lack of trying. He had tried several times to follow his own soulmate link, but he always got stopped by something before he saw the other person. All he knew about his destined love was that he was a he and he had long hair. That's why Heero only dated guys with long hair, like Wufei or Rhys.  
  
Heero shook his head viciously, trying to rid himself of all thoughts of soulmates. Yes, he had done something wrong, but he wasn't going to beat himself up over it -- he had Duo to do that. Heero sat up and made a mental note to apologize to Relena the next time he saw her for running off like he did. She probably had better things to think about, though, than his premature absence.  
  
***  
  
Duo woke up to a pounding on the door. He rolled out of bed, thinking that it was unbelievable for anyone to come around at this time of morning.  
  
"All right, all right, I'm coming!" he yelled, stubbing his toe on a chair as he went to answer the door. He pulled the door open. "What do you want?" he growled.  
  
Trowa jumped when Duo opened the door. "I came to see Heero -- and you. Are you just getting up?" he glided into the room past Duo. He looked around the room, and then his eyes came to rest on Duo again. "So, he's not here, then?"  
  
"I don't guess so," Duo replied, not really caring about Heero. "What do you mean, 'just now getting up?'"  
  
"It's eleven o'clock," Trowa answered, nodding his head in the direction of Duo's alarm clock.  
  
"No, it's not," Duo said, not believing Trowa. Duo never slept past eight, especially when he went to bed so early the night before. "There's no way I slept until eleven. That would be over fifteen hours of sleep. No way, not possible."  
  
"Way, possible," Trowa insisted, turning the clock around so Duo could see the big red numbers reading 11:03.  
  
"Well, shit," Duo said. He couldn't believe he had slept that long -- never before in his life had he slept that long -- and that he'd missed breakfast to boot.  
  
"Quatre was a little worried when you didn't show up at the caf this morning," Trowa said. "To tell you the truth, we all were."  
  
Duo stiffened at the indirect mention of his best friend. "I bet Wufei wasn't worried. I bet he was too busy making moon eyes at Mr. Heero Yuy." Duo raised his voice in a falsetto. "Oh, Heero, you're so cute and girly. I wish you were eleven again so I could stick my tongue down your throat." He dropped the falsetto and sat on his bed. "It's disgusting... hey, you said you were coming to see me *and* Heero. Actually, you said you were coming to see *Heero* and me. What's going on, Barton? Since when are you and Heero such good friends?" Duo stood up and looked accusingly at Trowa.  
  
"Relax, Duo. I don't know him that well," Trowa said. "I met him when I went running this morning. He seems like a really nice guy; you should give him a chance."  
  
Duo looked at Trowa, an incredulous expression on his face. "Yeah, right, Barton. He comes and invades *my* room, turns *my* best friend gay, and now he tries to steal *my* friends. He's not a nice guy, and I will never give him a chance." Having said that, Duo grabbed a couple of towels and some clothes out of a dresser drawer. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a shower. Then, when I feel normal and not-scuzzy, I am going to go to lunch with you and the guys. We are *not* going to talk about Heero Yuy. Okay?"  
  
"Whatever," Trowa muttered. "You're missing out, though, if you don't at least try to get along with him, but I won't say anything. Not a word. I'll see you at lunch." With that, Trowa walked out of the room, and gently closed the door behind him.  
  
"Whatever, indeed," Duo spat out behind him. "Can't see how anybody can stand Mr.-I'm-*So*-Perfect-Yuy. He's not so great, and I'm not missing out on *anything*."  
  
Duo walked into the bathroom and set his stuff down on the hamper, noting that it had been moved almost a full inch from where it was supposed to be. He growled low in his throat and muttered about stupid roommates who couldn't keep their hands off his stuff.  
  
Duo took off his clothes and neatly folded them before placing them in the hamper, like he did every time he took a shower. He took the band out of his hair and threw it into the trashcan (he only used them once before throwing them away). Or, that's what he was aiming for. The pony tail holder landed at the base of the toilet.  
  
Cursing, again, Duo crouched down to get the lost band. His eyes narrowed at the sight of a crusty brown stain. Inwardly, he mocked stupid roommates who were too dumb to clean up their own messes. He reached into the cabinet -- the one below the sink -- and got out the Lysol wipes. He cleaned up the stain, an threw away the wipe and the pony tail holder.  
  
Duo stood up, satisfied that the bathroom was again cleaned to his standards. Then, he entered the shower stall and proceeded to wash himself, all 27 times.  
  
Selune 


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Heero was walking back to the dorm when he ran into Trowa -- literally. He fell to the ground, landing on his butt for the third time in two days. "Ooph!" he cried, startled by his impact with the ground.  
  
Trowa looked down with an expression akin to horror on his face. "Oh, God. I'm so sorry, Heero," the taller boy said, helping him stand up. "I'm so sorry. I should've been looking where I was going, but I didn't, and now, because of me, you fell. Are you hurt? No? Are you sure? Okay."  
  
Trowa was running his hands over Heero, brushing off imaginary dirt he might have gotten on him when he fell down. Heero grabbed Trowa's hands, stilling them. "Trowa, I'm fine. Really. Though, this kind of thing seems to be happening a lot to me recently." Trowa's eyes still appeared apprehensive, so Heero decided to make him focus on something else. "Where were you going to so fast, anyway? You were moving like a bat out of hell."  
  
Trowa smiled, tensely, before answering Heero's question. "Actually, I was looking for you. I wanted to ask you if we could get together sometime and talk. Just as friends, of course. I would never intrude on a friend's territory --" Heero raise his eyebrow at this. "-- and, besides, I'm--"  
  
"Already in love with someone," Heero finished. Trowa looked at him inquisitively, before dismissing whatever it was he was going to say. "Anyway, I would love to talk with you, about anything. How about today? I'm free 'til 7:30. Well, until about 7:00; I got to give myself time to get ready."  
  
"Okay. How about right after lunch, in the grove?" Trowa asked. Heero acquiesced and they went their separate ways.  
  
***  
  
Duo got out of the shower, and washed it down with some of that once-a-day spray. He loved cleaning, and he definitely loved having access to his cleaning products anytime he was in his room. Duo's mother, under the advice of his then-psychiatrist, had kept all cleaning products under lock and key at her house before she shipped him off to boarding school.  
  
Duo dried off himself and his hair before reaching under the sink to get his blow-drier from its correct compartment. He dried his long hair thoroughly, the task taking approximately seventeen minutes. He put he hair drier back in its proper place, and took out his morning brush and a new ponytail holder. He quickly and neatly brushed and braided his hair before getting dressed.  
  
He hung up his towels on the rack to dry, and stepped out of the bathroom, his eyes immediately falling on the figure sitting lotus style on the -- unmade -- bed. "You," he hissed. He hadn't been expecting his roommate to be there. In fact, during his time in the bathroom, he had almost forgotten that he even *had* a roommate.  
  
The sight of Heero's unmade bed reminded Duo to make up his own; he hadn't done it before he took a shower. After he did that, Duo put on his shoes. He was almost at the door when Heero said something.  
  
"I'm sorry, what?" Duo asked. He hadn't caught the specifics of what his roommate had said.  
  
Heero looked up at him with what Duo could've sworn were sad eyes, and said: "Why do you hate me?"  
  
If Duo hadn't been standing still, that question would have stopped him in his tracks. As it was, he swayed a bit when he turned to look back at his (beautiful) roommate. "What makes you think that I hate you?"  
  
"Just...things." Heero reached up to scratch his eyebrow. "Just a feeling."  
  
Duo sighed. He might as well tell the boy why he didn't like him. "There are several reasons that I *dislike* you, the first of which being that you are a slob." Duo pointed to the unmade bed, the open closet, and the shoes in the floor. "The second is that you're a faggot fairy, and you're going to hell. The last reason is that you're invading my privacy. I like to be alone, and you being here makes it so that I can't be. That one's not personal; the fucking Pope could be my roommate and I would hate him." Duo turned away from Heero without saying his real last reason: 'You're extremely hot, and you make me want to jump you, and that's bad.' He almost didn't hear what Heero said before he was completely out of the room.  
  
Heero said, "I wish you didn't hate me. I'll find some way to make you like me."  
  
Duo ignored him and kept on walking. 'I like you too much already,' he thought.  
  
***  
  
Trowa's heart beat wildly in his chest all throughout lunch. He couldn't believe that he had actually met the Element that ruled over him, or that that Element liked him and wanted to be his friend. Trowa glanced over at Heero all throughout the meal, but true to his word, never said a thing about him.  
  
As soon as lunch was over, Trowa raced to the grove that his tree was in, and waited for Heero to come. And waited. And waited. Trowa had been there for fifteen minutes, and was starting to worry that Heero wasn't coming, when he heard a twig snap close by.  
  
"Sorry it took me so long to get here. My brothers thought I was trying to sneak off early with Wufei," Heero said, startling Trowa. "They didn't believe that I was just coming to see a friend. That there's even one guy in the world who's not going to try to jump my bones when he gets me alone baffles them."  
  
Trowa smiled at this. If he wasn't so in love, lust, infatuation with Quatre, he would definitely want to "jump" Heero's "bones."  
  
Heero sat on the ground and pulled Trowa down after him. "So," he said. "You wanted to talk to me about -- to ask me -- something. So, what do you want to know?"  
  
Selune 


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 10  
  
Trowa swallowed nervously as he thought of his first question. "So, like, I can ask anything I want?" he asked. He didn't really believe that it was going to be this easy, that Heero would give up such information so readily.  
  
Heero nodded his head, and scooted over so that he was facing Trowa. "Yeah. Anything," he answered. "But on one condition. I get to ask you stuff, too. I mean, I've never met a half-nymph, half-human before. I didn't think they existed."  
  
Trowa nodded his consent to the new rule, anything to get to know what it was like to be an Element. He thought a few minutes before coming up with, what he thought was, a dumb question. Trowa looked away from Heero to his tree. "So, umm, how old are you, anyway?"  
  
Heero laughed at this, and Trowa ducked his head in shame of his stupid question. The boy's laughter cut like glass through his heart. He felt like an idiot. "I'm-I'm sorry," Trowa said. "It was a stupid question. Maybe we ought to do this some other time."  
  
He started to stand up to walk away, but Heero pulled him back down. "No, no, I'm sorry for laughing," the boy said when Trowa was sitting, his face showing nothing but seriousness. "I just expected a harder question. Something like "What's the meaning of life?" or something else that I have no knowledge on. But my age, that I can answer."  
  
Heero took Trowa's hands in his own. Trowa had noticed in the day that he knew Heero that the other seemed to like physical contact. "I'm fifteen," Heero said. "Well, this body is fifteen. In truth, I'm -- my soul is -- a lot older. Quite a bit older, actually." Heero squeezed Trowa's hand harder, but not yet hard enough to hurt. He seemed to be psyching himself up. Heero coughed before continuing.  
  
"In the beginning, there was nothing, at least, that's what I've been told. No light, no darkness, no matter, no antimatter. Nothing. Then, suddenly, there was. By some freak accident of nature, or nothingness, the Lord and Lady were created. They didn't like the nothingness, the complete absence of anything good -- or bad, for that matter.  
  
"Together, they created the planets, the earths, dirt. You know, those kinds of things." Heero dug into the ground at that, as if to emphasize his point. "I was created as some kind of after effect. But, that wasn't enough for the Lord and Lady. They wanted more, so they created Water, Abhainn. They put random amounts of water on all the earths, and I was given a...companion, if you will. Eric, as he is known now, was created with Water, and I was no longer alone.  
  
"I was happy then -- well, as happy as one can be when there is no such thing as emotion -- because Eric was with me. The Lord and Lady weren't, though. They wanted more, so they created, in turn, Air and Fire. Thus, Rafe and Leif, my other brothers, were "born."  
  
"At this point, there was no life in the universe. The Lord and Lady and the four Elements -- Tir, Abhainn, Aile, and Bradhadair -- were all there was. There was light from the sun, but no one to enjoy it; oxygen from the wind, but no one to breathe it; wetness from the rivers, but no one to drink it; and richness from the soil, but no one to use it. There were no corporeal beings. The other Elements and I were random floating entities, as were the Lord and Lady.  
  
"Then, the Lord and Lady got it into their minds to create Spirit, an Element that would make life possible. Spirit, my sister, was created, and suddenly, there was life everywhere. Plants, animals, *people*. They were all there, and more. Most of all, we had bodies. The (now) five of us had bodies, something we'd never had before, never even dreamed of having before. I guess that's why I'm so touchy-feely now. Because I know what's it like not to be able to touch anything.  
  
"Anyway, you asked me a simple question, and I went off on some tangent," Heero said. He ducked his head and averted his eyes from Trowa, who had been staring at him, riveted by his tale. "So, anyway, in answer to your question, I am both fifteen years old, and as old as earth itself.  
  
***  
  
Heero looked down at the ground in embarrassment. He broke his hands away from Trowa's, and dug them into the soil. He played with the dirt for a while, waiting for Trowa to say something, to make him feel not-so-stupid for getting wildly off topic.  
  
Heero peeked at Trowa with one eye, and saw him sitting with his hands in his lap, deep in thought. A minute went by. Then two. Finally, the half- nymph said: "Damn. That's a long time. But don't worry about veering off course in your answer; that just means I got two questions answered for the price of one."  
  
Heero smiled at that -- the smile that Rhys always said would make even the most evil demon's legs turn to jelly -- his former good mood restored and his embarrassment erased. "Okay," he said, eyes shining up at Trowa. "My turn, then." Heero scratched his eyebrow where the bandage had been (he'd taken it off that morning because the cut wasn't too normal, but it still kind of itched), thinking of what he should ask Trowa first. Suddenly, it came to him.  
  
"Ooh," he said. "I know what I want to ask." Trowa just sat there, not protesting, so he took that to mean that he should just go ahead and ask. "Okay, so you know when I said before that I've never met a half-nymph, half-human? Well, I've never met a half-nymph, half-*anything*. Never even heard of one. So, I was wondering, how can you be that, and how come I never heard of you before?"  
  
Trowa seemed to tense up at that. He scrambled to his feet, looking like a deer caught in headlights. "Oh, look at the time," he said, glancing down at his watch. "It's almost 6:30. Where does the time go? Anyway, you should really be getting back, you know, for your big date." Trowa backed away from Heero. "Umm, it was nice talking to you," he said, before turning tail and practically running away from Heero, toward the dorms.  
  
"Well, that was unusual," Heero remarked, before standing up and returning to the dorms himself.  
  
Selune 


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements Chapter 11  
  
Heero reached his floor without incident, but Milliardo stopped him before he got in his room.  
  
"Why aren't you at dinner?" Milliardo asked him. He was standing behind Heero--too close behind--while Heero was trying to unlock his door. The man looked down at him with an expression that could only be described as lecherous.  
  
Heero swallowed nervously; the R.A. made him uncomfortable. "I-I'm eating later. I'm going on a date, and he promised to feed me." Heero fumbled for his key, and finally fit it in the lock. "Anyway, I was told students are only required to eat two meals a day in the cafeteria, and I already did."  
  
"Yes, that is the rule," Milliardo said. He seemed about to leave Heero alone, but before he did, he said: "By the way, who is your date?"  
  
"Wufei Chang," he said without a second thought. He hoped that Milliardo would leave now.  
  
"I hope the two of you have much fun tonight," Milliardo said, patting Heero condescendingly on the shoulder. The he left, and Heero quickly opened his door and flew into his room, slamming the door behind him.  
  
***  
  
Milliardo stalked away from the beautiful Heero Yuy, enraged that Wufei would dare to try to take what he had already marked as his. He had branded the boy yesterday by showing him to the cafeteria. Anybody who knew Milliardo know that he only showed boys he wanted for himself to the cafeteria. He might as well have pissed on the boy, marking his territory like a dog.  
  
Milliardo went into his lush private bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He sat on his queen size bed, and thought about what he could do to get Heero away from Chang and into his arms. Milliardo smirked as the perfect plan came to him.  
  
He picked up his phone and dialed the number he had come to know by heart. "Hello, are Alex and Mueller there?' he asked. Milliardo's smirk widened as he waited for his lackeys to come to the phone.  
  
If Chang wanted a pissing contest, Milliardo would give him one he'd never forget.  
  
***  
  
Wufei rushed around his room, making sure everything was ready for tonight. Unfortunately, it was. Wufei sighed as he sat on his bed. With everything ready--he was dressed, all the food was in his car, and he had the tickets to the carnival--there was nothing for him to do until he picked up Heero.  
  
Wufei sighed as happily as he thought about Heero. His lush lips, perfect skin, and a body to die for were enough to make anybody (male, female, hermaphrodite, asexual alien being) want him. And his appearance was definitely one of the reasons that Wufei wanted him; however, his heart was really drew Wufei to Heero.  
  
Wufei remembered one day, when they were at camp, that completely summed up for him why he so desperately loved Heero. And he did love him, had ever since that day.  
  
Probably two weeks into camp, before the whole kissing fiasco, a new boy showed up. He was about Wufei's age, short, and skinny. He had long hair, braces, and a ton of zits. In short, he was just the type of boy people liked to pick on.  
  
Sure enough, one day Wufei came across the boy getting beat up by three older boys. Wufei was about to walk away--they were too big for him to fight--when Heero showed up. The eleven year-old stepped between the new boy and the older boys, saying something. Wufei couldn't hear what Heero said, he was too far away, but he could see the older goons strike him.  
  
They hit Heero several times until, suddenly, through his rage, they didn't seem too big for Wufei to fight anymore. He rushed in and held them off Heero until Hero's brothers (who were always close by) came to the rescue. Wufei got down next to Heero, who was laying on the ground coughing up blood. He was about to ask him how he was, but before he could, Heero asked him something.  
  
"Is he okay?" Heero had asked, in reference to the new boy. That was when Wufei fell in love with Heero. When he was more worried about a boys whose name he didn't even know than he was about himself, while he was hurt and coughing up blood. Wufei sighed again as he thought about how kind and warm and giving Heero was.  
  
***  
  
Trowa sat on the toilet lid in his and Quatre's bathroom. He put his face in his hands, and worried over what to tell Heero. He knew that he would have to answer the other boy's question sometime (after all, fair is fair), but he didn't want Heero to hate him.  
  
The circumstances of his birth were not pretty--his mother died giving birth to him. Trowa was the result of a forced coupling between a male nymph--the original protector of Trowa's tree--and a female human. He loathed himself for that, for being the product of rape, and he expected that anyone else would, too.  
  
The door to the bedroom opened, pulling Trowa from his musings. He stood up and went to greet his roommate. "Hello, Quatre," he said to the blond lying on the bed.  
  
"Hello to you, too, Trowa," Quatre replied, his voice muffled because he was talking face-down into his pillow. Quatre sat up, bringing his pillow with him and hugging it to his chest. "Why weren't you at supper?"  
  
Trowa debate whether to tell Quatre the truth or to lie to him, but eventually he decided to be honest. There was no way he could lie to his angel. "I was talking to Heero. You know, the new kid. I didn't expect to talk so long, though." Trowa sat down on his own bed, and pulled his knees up to hug them.  
  
"Oh," Quatre said. "Don't let Duo know that you were fraternizing with the "enemy". He might label you a "traitor" like Wufei." Quatre stood up and moved over to sit by Trowa, leaving his pillow behind.  
  
"Yeah," Trowa said, trying to scoot closer to Quatre and away from him at the same time. "We wouldn't want that, now would we?"  
  
"No, we wouldn't." Quatre put a hand on Trowa's cheek, turning the latter's face to him. Quatre looked up at Trowa, his lips begging to be kissed. Quatre rubbed his thumb over Trowa's cheek before asking: "Where do you go at night?"  
  
Selune 


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Heero was just finishing getting ready when Wufei knocked on the door. Duo hadn't gotten back to the room, so Heero had to answer the door. Grabbing a light jacket (after all, it *was* mid-September) he went to greet his date.  
  
"Hello, Wufei," Heero said, shyly, when he opened the door. "How are you?"  
  
"Fine," Wufei answered, his jaw gaping open, letting bugs in, as he stared at Heero.  
  
Heero squirmed under Wufei's gaze, uncomfortable with the intensity of the dark eyes trained on him, even though he should be used to being the subject of lustful looks, it still bothered him. Especially when he couldn't really see what they saw in him.  
  
Heero thought he looked astonishingly average, a little on the homely side, even. He was short, so short that no stranger would ever believe that he was even distantly related to his 6'4" brothers. Also, he was skinny to the point of malnutrition; what little muscles he had were overshadowed by his sheer lack of size. And his hips, Heero hated his lips. They were too full -- like Angelina Jolie's, only on her, they looked good--made more so by the fact that he was constantly chewing on them.  
  
Tonight, Heero looked no different from normal. He wore the outfit he had picked out the night before: thin, white shirt that held his Zodiac sign on it; hip-hugging, dark-blue jeans that dragged the ground at his heels; and the brown oxford shoes that made him almost an inch taller. His hair had, again, refused to do as it was told, and it was laying across his head in a tousled mess.  
  
Heero shook the offending thoughts from his brain. After all, Wufei thought he was cute. Heero checked to make sure he had his key with him before turning to Wufei.  
  
"Ready?" he asked, before walking out of his door.  
  
***  
  
Wufei barely acknowledged Heero's words with a grunt. He was too busy staring at the vision before him.  
  
Tight clothes showcased Heero's lean body, but left enough to the imagination as to be labeled as "classy." Standard preppy-boy shoes adorned his feet, raising him closer to Wufei's level. They were only separated by two inches with the shoes. Heero's hair was achingly messy; tousled as if Aeolus himself had run his fingers through his hair.  
  
Wufei returned to his senses and processed what Heero had said. "Yeah, yeah. Here. let me help me with your jacket," he said, trying to act like he hadn't been drooling over the hotness that was Heero.  
  
Wufei helped Heero put on his jacket and the two boys left the building.  
  
***  
  
Trowa blinked at Quatre. "What do you mean 'Where do I go at night?' I don't go anywhere. I stay right here." Trowa backed away from Quatre's scrutinizing gaze, and from his caressing palm. He didn't understand how Quatre knew that he snuck out; he was always so careful.  
  
Quatre lowered his eyes to the bedspread. "Don't bullshit me, Trowa. I know you go somewhere. If you don't want to tell me, fine, but don't lie to me. Duo and I may not agree on much, but the one thing we always agree on is lying. So don't piss on my shoes and tell me it's raining, and don't tell me you don't go anywhere at night because I fucking *see* you leave!"  
  
Trowa didn't know what to do; he had never seen Quatre so mad before. The blond's chest was heaving, and he had cursed. Quatre Raberba Winner had actually cussed, twice; thrice if Trowa counted "piss." As Trowa thought of what to tell Quatre, the shorter boy rose from the bed.  
  
"Well, I guess you're not going to tell me," Quatre said, his fists clenched at his sides, his face becoming red. "Fine. I just thought you would me since we're friends--best friends--but I guess I was wrong. I guess I was wrong about a lot of things."  
  
As Quatre started walking away, Trowa felt his chance slipping away. His chance to finally spill the beans, all of the beans, to Quatre. It scared him, but he knew that this was a now-or-never type deal. If he let Quatre walk through that door, their friendship would be lost, and they would never be able to become anything more than they were.  
  
"Quatre, wait," Trowa sighed, rising from the bed. "I'll tell you. The truth, this time. Just, please, come back?"  
  
Quatre acquiesced, and sat down, on his own bed this time. He looked up at Trowa, and waited with sympathetic eyes for his friend to explain everything.  
  
***  
  
Heero looked out at the beach where Wufei had brought him. Amazingly, it had only taken them twenty minutes in Wufei car to get to Lake Aunawauno.  
  
"Oh, Wufei, it's gorgeous," Heero gushed when the older boy caught up to him. And indeed, it was. The clear, sparkling blue of the lake and the waves making intricate patterns in the sand, all set off by the lush green of a New England forest.  
  
Wufei voiced his agreement with Heero and set the picnic basket on the blanket Heero had spread out. Then, he sat down next to it and pulled Heero after him.  
  
"Why don't we eat now?" Wufei said, getting the food out of the basket. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving."  
  
Heero agreed, almost glomping Wufei when he saw what kind of food he had brought: milk, cheese, and other foods that Heero could eat without it screaming at him. Most of all, there was no meat. Heero turned to Wufei with tears in his eyes.  
  
"Oh, 'Fei, you remembered!" Heero exclaimed. Then he really did glomp Wufei, causing said boy to sprawl on his back, with a rather sexy Hee-chan straddling his hips.  
  
Wufei laughed up at Heero. "Of *course* I remembered that you're vegetarian. After the fuss you made at camp about "those poor little creatures being brutally murdered" so we could have hotdogs on a stick, I could never forget."  
  
Heero giggled and blushed (very cutely) and buried his head in the crook of Wufei's neck.  
  
"I'd forgotten about that," he whispered.  
  
"I never forget," Wufei returned, "if it's about you."  
  
***  
  
Alex and Mueller watched the show from the bushes.  
  
"Are you getting this?" Alex asked, smacking Mueller on the head when he started to drool.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Mueller said. "From this angle, it looks exactly like Winner wants it to. These pictures will ruin the lovebirds' relationship before it even begins."  
  
With that said, Mueller put his eye back to the camera, and continued taking pictures of Chang and Yuy.  
  
Selune 


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 13  
  
Trowa fidgeted as Quatre stared at him, trying to think of how to word his tale. He had decided to tell Quatre the truth, just not all of it--he was going to leave out the half-nymph part--but he didn't know exactly *how* to say it.  
  
"Since I was really little, I've loved nature, the forest in particular," he started, hesitantly. Quatre gently prodded him to go on, and emboldened by Quatre's reaction, he continued. "We, my parents and I, had a forest surrounding our home. Every night, after I was old enough to walk, I would go into the forest and curl up under this one tree. After my father died, it was the only place that gave me any comfort. Ever since then, I've only been able to sleep in a forest."  
  
Quatre sat on his bed, apparently absorbing what Trowa had said. "So...when you go out, you're going to sleep?" he asked, seemingly confused.  
  
"Yeah," Trowa answered. "I go to this grove--it's really pretty--and I sleep. If you want, I'll show it to you sometime."  
  
Quatre nodded his head before getting up from the bed. "I'd like that," he said. He started to walk away, before turning back to Trowa. "And Trowa.... Telling me wasn't so hard, was it?"  
  
Trowa said that no, it wasn't. He smiled to himself, glad that he had finally told the person he loved most of all a little bit about himself, as Quatre left the room, saying he was going to look for Duo.  
  
***  
  
Heero and Wufei had finished their picnic and were at the carnival in the town of Liberty Falls, two towns over from Shady Oaks and a half-hour drive from Lake Aunawauno. They were currently in line for the Ferris wheel, Wufei's arm wrapped around Hero's waist, pulling the boy to him. Heero was having a good time. Well, as good a time as anyone could have knowing that anywhere from one to three of his brothers were watching him.  
  
Heero shivered in his thin jacket, and huddled closer to Wufei for warmth as they progressed further to the front of the line. Wufei must have noticed this, for he looked down at Heero with concern in his eyes.  
  
"Are you cold?" Wufei asked him. He pulled Heero even closer to him, as if to warm him up.  
  
Heero shook his head to indicate that he wasn't cold in the least little bit, but the chattering of his teeth must have tipped Wufei off to the fact that he definitely *was* cold. Wufei took off his own jacket, a school jacket with 'Shady Oaks' written on it, and offered it to Heero. Heero tried to refuse Wufei's offer, but the Chinese boy wouldn't take no for an answer.  
  
"Besides," Wufei said, "I have on this big, thick sweater to keep me warm."  
  
At this, Heero finally consented to wear it. He slipped it on just at the ride operator told them they could get on, barely noticing the disapproving way the carny was looking at him and Wufei. They sat down and the ride started; they were the last passengers to board.  
  
Wufei slung his arm around Heero's shoulders, and Heero snuggled up against Wufei, ignoring the way the carny looked at them. The ride went on for a few minutes, until it finally stopped at the top. Heero gasped at the sight of the carnival from a bird's eye view--the glittering lights made it appear magical.  
  
"It's beautiful," he whispered.  
  
"You're beautiful," Wufei returned, bending down to say it into Heero's ear. He looked at the smaller boy as said boy looked up at him. He traced Heero's lips with the pad of his thumb.  
  
"Boys aren't beautiful," Heero said. He felt Wufei shudder as he talked, and wondered if he was cold without his jacket.  
  
"You are," Wufei insisted.  
  
Heero's mouth turned up a little at the corners, and he snuggled closer to Wufei to enjoy the rest of the ride.  
  
***  
  
Milliardo smirked as he received a fax from Alex and Mueller. "Got the pictures," it said. "We'll edit them and get 'em to you before daybreak."  
  
Everything was going according to plan, and Milliardo almost couldn't' be happier--the only way he would be happier was if he already had Heero as his. He had a sample of Chang's handwriting, so his expert forger could imitate it exactly; everyone would think that Wufei had written it. Also, he would soon have the "fixed" pictures of Chang and Heero.  
  
It made Milliardo that, come Monday morning, there were going to be some very interesting pictures on the senior and junior floors, and he would be one step closer to claiming Heero as his and his alone.  
  
***  
  
Duo heard that Quatre was looking for him, so he left his room and went to take a walk in the woods. Lately, there had been something nagging at his brain, and the last thing he needed was the blond boy up in his face, telling him to "get along with everyone." Duo made a face at his mental Quatre-voice, and walked on.  
  
Duo tried, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing, something in his head. He kept getting flashes of Heero. Heero naked in the shower, Heero bleeding from gashes in his head, Heero hovering over Duo's bed and whispering something. But none of that had ever happened, and if it had, he hadn't seen it.  
  
As if the flashes weren't enough, Duo kept thinking that he had met Heero before, which he obviously hadn't. Duo admitted, but only to himself, that Heero was too gorgeous to ever forget, so he couldn't have met him before.  
  
And that was another of Duo's problems! No matter how much he tried not to be, he found himself quickly growing more and more attracted to his roommate. Duo knew that was a sin; his father had been attracted to guys and God had punished him--he had been brutally murdered.  
  
Duo's father died when he was three. Duo was at preschool when it happened, but he had been the one to find the bodies. Duo had ridden the bus home that afternoon, and the bus monitor, since no one was there to greet hi, had walked him into his house. Once inside, Duo had seen his father's and his father's best friend's corpses. They were naked, and their genitals had been cut off and shoved into their mouths. On the wall, in blood, there had been writing. Duo hadn't been able to read it, but his mother told him later what it said. It said, "Thou shalt not lie with a man as thou wouldst with woman."  
  
This had been Duo's first lesson in the wrongness of homosexuality, but not the last. His home became a place of worship, pretty much, and every day Duo's mother made him tell her that he liked women, loved women. Then she made him show her how much more he loved women than men. When she enrolled him in boarding school two years later, Duo didn't protest.  
  
And now, he was becoming queer, just like his father had been. He tried to justify it to himself--Heero was pretty, looked just like a girl; this was an all-boy's school, half the population was fucking each other just because of their raging hormones; and his favorite, Heero was purposely tempting him--but any way that he said it, the truth remained: He wanted Heero Yuy.  
  
Selune 


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 14  
  
Duo got back to his room mere seconds before Milliardo started room checks. Heero was, of course, already in the room when Duo went in--he was asleep, on top of the covers, holding a stuffed bear that Duo hadn't seen before.  
  
Milliardo came into the room (Duo hadn't closed the door when he came in) to confirm that both boys were in there. He should have left then, Duo *wanted* him to leave then, but he didn't; instead, Milliardo walked over to Heero's bed. He ran his fingers through the messy locks of Heero's hair.  
  
"Beautiful, isn't he?" Milliardo asked Duo, his eyes never leaving Heero.  
  
Duo had to admit that Heero was very attractive, in his mind, at least. He didn't voice his opinion to Quatre's brother, though.  
  
"He could do so much better than Chang," Milliardo muttered, obviously not intending for Duo to hear what he said. But Duo had spent years listening in the dark for his mother to come, and he heard every word. Milliardo stopped playing with Heero's hair and stalked over to Duo.  
  
Duo looked Milliardo straight in the eyes, neither one being able to use his height to intimidate the other, as Duo knew they were both used to doing. "Can I help you?" Duo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He wanted to rip Milliardo's hand from his body and then shove it up his ass for touching Heero. Someone else, especially someone like Milliardo, touching Heero made him angry; the fact that it made him angry made him more angry.  
  
"Wufei's your friend, right?" Milliardo asked. Duo nodded to indicate that he was, and Milliardo continued. "You don't much like that Wufei's dating Heero here, are you?... Don't answer that; it was a rhetorical question. Of course you don't like that your best friend is dating a guy. After all, you are the resident homophobe. Don't even try to deny that--everybody knows that you are. Most schools have one outed homosexual, this one has one "outed" homophobic. And that's you.  
  
"Anyway,... Where was I? Oh, yeah: Wufei. You don't like him going out with Heero; I don't like it either, so I'm going to do something about it. Want in?"  
  
Duo had to think about that for a few minutes--not. "Hell, no," he said. "I may not agree with Wufei's choice, but he is still my best friend, and I'm not going to do anything to hurt him. Besides, I've seen what you've done in the past to get your toys, and I know that you'll do practically anything to get the one you want. As annoying as Heero is, I'm not going to help you hurt him, either. Now, get out of my room."  
  
Duo curled his hands into fists as Milliardo started to walk out. Miiliardo got to the door before turning back to Duo.  
  
"You sure you don't want in? It'll be loads of fun. I may even let you have Heero after I claim him."  
  
"Get. Out." Duo demanded. He started to walk over to Milliardo and forcibly remove him from the room, but Milliardo seemed to take the hint and left. Duo laughed derisively when the door shut. "As if I would want Heero."  
  
Duo found himself at the foot of Heero's bed and looked down at him. He moved the boy and put the covers over him. Duo traced the line of Heero's jaw before snatching his hand away, as if burnt. Duo lay down on his bed, purposely facing away from his roommate.  
  
'I hope Heero moves into Wufei's room on his own, because I can't make him leave now. And I'm afraid that, pretty soon, I'll do something that I'll regret,' Duo thought, before he drifted off to sleep.  
  
***  
  
Heero reached up with one hand, still clutching the teddy bear with the other, to touch his jawbone. He was amazed that Duo had touched him with such tenderness. But what really baffled him was that Duo had turned down Milliardo's offer; Heero would have expected Duo to jump at the chance to be rid of him.  
  
Heero, for his part, was proud that Duo rejected Milliardo, and even prouder when Duo almost threw him out. Heero would've done it himself, if not for the facts that he was supposed to be weaker than Milliardo, and *asleep*.  
  
Heero had heard Milliardo's plan loud and clear when the man touched him. If not for the fact that Milliardo's plan would make him be able to break things off with Wufei, Heero would completely ignore what Milliardo was going to do. But he was going to dump Wufei anyway, and this would give him an explainable reason. The real reason, of course, was that Wufei wasn't his soul mate.  
  
Ever since Heero arrived at Shady Oaks, he had felt a steady tug at his soul mate link. He knew that meant that his destined was near. Heero knew what it felt like because he had felt it many times before, though only once before in this life, at camp with Wufei.  
  
Heero had assumed that Wufei must be his soul mate, because he was the only person to be at both the camp and here at Shady Oaks. But tonight, when they were alone together, he hadn't felt it. There had been no tug, so Wufei couldn't possibly be the one he wanted, the one he needed.  
  
As cold-hearted as it may seem, Heero wasn't going to waste his time with Wufei when his soul mate was so close. He had less than seven years to live (the Elements never lived past age twenty-five, and his brother's were already eighteen), and he was going to use them to their full potential, preferably with his love by his side.  
  
Heero dropped his train of thought and turned to look out of the window. After all, he had almost a year to find out who his soul mate was.  
  
***  
  
Rafe looked out at the moon from the window of his second-story room.  
  
"When is Rhys going to get here?" Eric asked him from the top bunk bed. Their room was similar to Heero's, only it was a little bigger and had three of everything, thus the triplets had bunked two of the beds to give themselves for room.  
  
"He's supposed to be here tomorrow," Rafe said. "He's going to be some kind of teacher or something. I'm so excited that he's coming."  
  
"Mum would kill you if she found out you were boinking the bodyguard," Eric said, curling his long legs up beneath himself. "He's, like, thousands of years older than you."  
  
"Or hundreds of thousands of years younger than me," Rafe replied. "It all depends on the way you look at it. Besides, I love him."  
  
"Of course you do; you two belong together," Leif said, coming out of the bathroom and drying his hair with a towel. "But right now, I want to hear about our darling little brother."  
  
"Okay," Rafe said, moving to sit on his bed. "What happened first is Wufei took Heero to romantic little lake..."  
  
Selune 


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 15  
  
Heero sat at his desk, trying to psych himself up to talk to Wufei. It was close to eleven, and he had to meet the other boy at eleven-thirty. He had to make sure he could act his part when the time came--he had to be convincing as the "betrayed boyfriend."  
  
"How could you?" Heero asked, looking at himself in the mirror, trying to perfect his distraught expression. "How could you say that about me? We never did that!"  
  
Heero grimaced at how fake he looked and sounded. He knew that he would sound even worse when he got near Wufei--the older boy's feelings would get into Heero's mind and maybe crumble his resolve.  
  
Heero tried talking to the mirror for a few more minutes before giving it up completely--it wasn't working. Instead, he decided to spend the next few minutes building up his blocks. After fifteen years of having a power that he wasn't supposed to, Heero had pretty much learned how to close it off.  
  
Only problem was, it closed his emotions off as well.  
  
***  
  
Duo waited outside of the confessional, having just come from morning mass.* He rushed in as soon as the lady in the booth exited. He crossed himself and kneeled in the booth. The opening between himself and the priest slid open the screen distorting the holy man's face.  
  
"Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned," Duo said.  
  
"How long has it been since your last confession?" the priest asked.  
  
"Six days, twenty-three hours, and forty-nine minutes," Duo answered.  
  
"What are your sins, my son?" the priest asked.  
  
"I have...coveted, Father," Duo said. "And I have lusted...after a boy..."  
  
"Go on," the priest prompted.  
  
Duo, who had almost chickened out on his confession (which he had never done before), got hold of his emotions and continued. "I tried not to, Father, but I have felt attracted to another male. He's my roommate, and my best friend is in love with him.  
  
"Father, I tried not to, but Lucifer has his claws in me and won't let go. Hee-he is incredibly good-looking, and I find myself thinking of him at...inopportune moments. What shall I do, Father? What *can* I do?"  
  
"Does your friend have any claim to this boy?" the priest asked.  
  
Duo was taken aback. He'd expected--been prepared to accept--at least a thousand "Hail Mary's," and "Our Fathers" for his transgression, not a simple question.  
  
"Well, they've only went on one date," Duo said, confused as to exactly where this was going, "so I would say that he doesn't. Why do you ask?"  
  
"You should ask him out," the priest said. "Just take the plunge and go for it."  
  
"But, but, Father, he's a guy!" Duo sputtered. He had no idea why the priest would say that. Maybe he thought that Duo was a girl? "And I'm a guy! That would be gay, and I'm not homosexual!"  
  
"I know that you are a guy, my son," the priest said. "But there is so little love in the world these days, that one must take it anywhere they can get it. Tell me, are these feelings of yours, are they reciprocated?"  
  
Duo ignored the priest's question. "But says in the Bible: "Do not lay with a man as you would with a woman!" Duo protested. "That means that homosexuality is wrong."  
  
"It could mean that, except for the fact that it is physically impossible to "lay" with a man as one would "lay" with a woman," the priest said. "Completely different body parts. Not to mention, a gay man would not *want* to "lay" with a woman at all."  
  
"So you're telling me that gay isn't wrong, that it isn't bad?" Duo asked. "Is that really what you, as a priest, are saying to me?"  
  
"Yes, it is," the priest said.  
  
"I don't believe this," Duo said. "You're a liar. A sick, disgusting bastard not worthy of your collar!" With that, Duo jerked open the confessional door and fled from the suffocating booth.  
  
***  
  
Heero left his room and started walking to Wufei's, pretending to ignore the lecherous looks he was receiving from the various boys he met in the hall. Finally, about two-thirds of the way to the Chinese boy's room, Heero was stopped by a big and bulky junior.  
  
"Hey, Heero, how about you and me go on a "date" Friday night?" Big and Bulky said. "After all, if Chang rates you a 9.5, I wonder what you'll rate on *my* scale."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Heero asked. "No, never mind, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm dating Wufei, and he's a nice person."  
  
"Well, if he's such a nice person, what's he doing posting these all over the floor?" Big and Bulky said, holding up one of the posters Milliardo had had made. "I don't believe that these ratings are the work of a "nice" person."  
  
Heero snatched the poster--which was really just an 8" by 10" piece of paper--for Big and Bulky's hands. Heero looked at the poster and was amazed at how authentic Milliardo had made it look. At the top of the poster was a grainy picture of Heero and Wufei at the lake. The angle of the camera, the time of night, and the low quality of the film made it appear as though the two of them were having sex. Heero's laughing face was contorted into one of lust. Below the picture was the real shocker--the ratings. "Wufei" had given Heero ratings on everything from overall sexiness to naivety-- essential to getting a virgin in bed--to kinkiness. The only thing Heero got a less-than-perfect score on was talking. "Wufei" wrote the he "talked so much I felt as if my ears were going to fall off."  
  
"Go away," Heero said to Big and Bulky, not looking up from the poster.  
  
"What?" B&B asked, staring at Heero like he was crazy. "You'll give it up to Chang, but not to me, a prime stud? Come on, baby, I will be so much better than he was, and I'll give you a perfect ten."  
  
"Go away," Heero repeated, sidestepping B&B's grabby hands. "Go away, unless you *want* me to sick my brothers on you."  
  
After that was said, Big and Bulky, surprisingly, remembered that he had something else to do. Heero smiled--smally--that B&B wasn't man enough to take on three bigger and bulkier guys as he walked the rest of the way to Wufei's room.  
  
Selune 


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Hero stood before Wufei's door, his hands poised to knock. He schooled his face into an expression of bewilderment, and he brought up his mental walls. Before going into Wufei's room, Heero wanted to make sure he would not be able to feel the other's emotions in the slightest.  
  
That done, Heero rapped on the door. "Wufei?" he called out, letting his programmed emotion--confusion--leech through his voice. Heero heard Wufei shuffle around in his room--he had probably just woken up--and unlock the door.  
  
"Heero?" Wufei said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "What are you--Oh, yeah. I told you to come by. Come in, come in. Sit down." Wufei waved Heero in, and Heero perched on the edge of the spare bed. Wufei didn't have a roommate, so it had nothing on it. "I'm sorry that I'm not dressed; I just woke up. Let me put on some clothes, and we'll leave."  
  
Heero nodded, and Wufei walked into his bathroom to get dressed. Heero looked around the room, noticing that it seemed very empty. Since Wufei had no roommate, only half of the stuff was in use.  
  
Last night, Heero had asked Wufei why he didn't have a roommate. Roommates were assigned alphabetically according to vacancies, so Wufei should have gotten one long before Duo did. Wufei had told Heero that an accident of record-keeping (meaning the secretaries couldn't handle foreign names) had his name down as Chang Wufei instead of Wufei Chang. They had mixed up his family name and first name, and as a result, he was at the end of the list instead of the front.  
  
"But if I'd known I could get you for a roommate, I would've gladly moved to the front of the line," Wufei had said.  
  
"I bet you would've," Heero muttered, just as Wufei emerged from the bathroom, clean as a whistle.  
  
"Bet who would've what?" Wufei asked, running a towel through his hair. "I hope you don't mind, but I went ahead and took a shower while I was in there. Didn't want to be stinkin' up the place." Wufei bent down to give Heero a kiss, but Heero cringed away. Wufei pulled away from Heero, confusion flickering in his brown eyes. "What's wrong?"  
  
Heero was almost undone by the hurt in Wufei's voice, but he pushed all emotion deep inside himself and trudged on. "As if you didn't know," he murmured. He turned his head away from Wufei and looked out the window. Heero played with the poster in his hands for a few minutes before sighing and turning back to Wufei. "What is this?" He thrust the poster into Wufei's hands.  
  
Wufei stumbled back a few steps when Heero shoved the paper at him. Wufei unrolled the paper and looked at it. His eyes got big as he read what it said. Wufei's gaze flickered back and forth from Heero to the poster, the poster to Heero.  
  
"I-I didn't do this," Wufei said. He reached his hand out to touch Heero, but pulled it back when Heero flinched. "I didn't do it."  
  
"Then whose handwriting is that?" Heero demanded, letting anger come through in his voice. "Whose fucking writing is that!" Heero rose from the bed. "Huh, Wufei? If that wasn't you, why does it look like your writing and why does it read like your words?"  
  
"I don't know. It doesn't sound like me at all, and how would you even know what my handwriting looks like?" Wufei said.  
  
"How would I know? How would I *not* know?" Heero demanded. "We only wrote to each other for *six weeks* after camp, until I moved and lost your address. As for it not sounding like you--" Heero snatched the paper from Wufei's hands. "Tips for getting Yuy to give it up. Tip one: Tell him he's beautiful. He likes that. Tip two: Act the part of the big, strong man. Let him borrow your coat if he's cold. Tip three: Give him presents. He really likes stuffed animals, like teddy bears... Need I go on, Wufei!"  
  
"But, Heero, I didn't do it. I would never--could never--do anything to hurt you," Wufei said.  
  
"Yeah, well, too late," Heero said, letting his eyes fill with tears. He walked past Wufei and out the door, ignoring the boy's anguished protestations of innocence.  
  
***  
  
Duo groaned as Quatre finally caught him. He'd just gotten back to his room from church and was not in any mood to deal with the blond.  
  
"Quatre, I'm not--" he started to say.  
  
"Did you hear?" Quatre asked. "About Wufei and Heero? It's all over school."  
  
"Hear what? What's all over school?" Duo asked, curiosity piqued. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, if it was about Heero, he was interested. And of course he wanted to know what happened with Wufei. After all, the guy *was* his best friend.  
  
"You should look at this," Quatre said, handing a piece of paper to Duo. "They went pretty fast, but I managed to wrestle one away from a puny looking sophomore. I don't know why he was on our floor. Anyway, I knew it couldn't be true--Wufei would never do a thing like that--but I wanted to show it to you for confirmation.  
  
"I have it on good authority--in other words, my own ears--that Heero dumped Wufei over this. Very loudly, I might add."  
  
Duo looked over the paper, shocked (yet not) over the information on it. He knew damn well that Wufei didn't write it, and he could barely believe that anybody would do that to Wufei and Heero. "Milliardo," he hissed.  
  
"What?" Quatre asked. "Oh! I was looking for you earlier, for something else. I just remembered what it was. I was going to tell you to be nice to Heero, to give him a chance, but if he believes that Wufei could write something like *that*, he's obviously too *stupid* to deserve one. Stupid people should be shot."  
  
"Yes, they should be," Duo agreed, distractedly. He was too busy thinking of painfully gruesome ways to kill Milliardo to listen to Quatre. "Quatre, shut up for a minute. If what you said about Heero dumping him is true, Wufei's going to need comforting. Go to him."  
  
Quatre nodded, then looked at Duo. "Well, where are you going to be while I'm comforting your best friend?"  
  
"Me?" Duo asked. "I'm going to pay your big brother a little visit."  
  
Selune 


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 16  
  
Hero stood before Wufei's door, his hands poised to knock. He schooled his face into an expression of bewilderment, and he brought up his mental walls. Before going into Wufei's room, Heero wanted to make sure he would not be able to feel the other's emotions in the slightest.  
  
That done, Heero rapped on the door. "Wufei?" he called out, letting his programmed emotion--confusion--leech through his voice. Heero heard Wufei shuffle around in his room--he had probably just woken up--and unlock the door.  
  
"Heero?" Wufei said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "What are you--Oh, yeah. I told you to come by. Come in, come in. Sit down." Wufei waved Heero in, and Heero perched on the edge of the spare bed. Wufei didn't have a roommate, so it had nothing on it. "I'm sorry that I'm not dressed; I just woke up. Let me put on some clothes, and we'll leave."  
  
Heero nodded, and Wufei walked into his bathroom to get dressed. Heero looked around the room, noticing that it seemed very empty. Since Wufei had no roommate, only half of the stuff was in use.  
  
Last night, Heero had asked Wufei why he didn't have a roommate. Roommates were assigned alphabetically according to vacancies, so Wufei should have gotten one long before Duo did. Wufei had told Heero that an accident of record-keeping (meaning the secretaries couldn't handle foreign names) had his name down as Chang Wufei instead of Wufei Chang. They had mixed up his family name and first name, and as a result, he was at the end of the list instead of the front.  
  
"But if I'd known I could get you for a roommate, I would've gladly moved to the front of the line," Wufei had said.  
  
"I bet you would've," Heero muttered, just as Wufei emerged from the bathroom, clean as a whistle.  
  
"Bet who would've what?" Wufei asked, running a towel through his hair. "I hope you don't mind, but I went ahead and took a shower while I was in there. Didn't want to be stinkin' up the place." Wufei bent down to give Heero a kiss, but Heero cringed away. Wufei pulled away from Heero, confusion flickering in his brown eyes. "What's wrong?"  
  
Heero was almost undone by the hurt in Wufei's voice, but he pushed all emotion deep inside himself and trudged on. "As if you didn't know," he murmured. He turned his head away from Wufei and looked out the window. Heero played with the poster in his hands for a few minutes before sighing and turning back to Wufei. "What is this?" He thrust the poster into Wufei's hands.  
  
Wufei stumbled back a few steps when Heero shoved the paper at him. Wufei unrolled the paper and looked at it. His eyes got big as he read what it said. Wufei's gaze flickered back and forth from Heero to the poster, the poster to Heero.  
  
"I-I didn't do this," Wufei said. He reached his hand out to touch Heero, but pulled it back when Heero flinched. "I didn't do it."  
  
"Then whose handwriting is that?" Heero demanded, letting anger come through in his voice. "Whose fucking writing is that!" Heero rose from the bed. "Huh, Wufei? If that wasn't you, why does it look like your writing and why does it read like your words?"  
  
"I don't know. It doesn't sound like me at all, and how would you even know what my handwriting looks like?" Wufei said.  
  
"How would I know? How would I *not* know?" Heero demanded. "We only wrote to each other for *six weeks* after camp, until I moved and lost your address. As for it not sounding like you--" Heero snatched the paper from Wufei's hands. "Tips for getting Yuy to give it up. Tip one: Tell him he's beautiful. He likes that. Tip two: Act the part of the big, strong man. Let him borrow your coat if he's cold. Tip three: Give him presents. He really likes stuffed animals, like teddy bears... Need I go on, Wufei!"  
  
"But, Heero, I didn't do it. I would never--could never--do anything to hurt you," Wufei said.  
  
"Yeah, well, too late," Heero said, letting his eyes fill with tears. He walked past Wufei and out the door, ignoring the boy's anguished protestations of innocence.  
  
***  
  
Duo groaned as Quatre finally caught him. He'd just gotten back to his room from church and was not in any mood to deal with the blond.  
  
"Quatre, I'm not--" he started to say.  
  
"Did you hear?" Quatre asked. "About Wufei and Heero? It's all over school."  
  
"Hear what? What's all over school?" Duo asked, curiosity piqued. As much as he hated to admit it to himself, if it was about Heero, he was interested. And of course he wanted to know what happened with Wufei. After all, the guy *was* his best friend.  
  
"You should look at this," Quatre said, handing a piece of paper to Duo. "They went pretty fast, but I managed to wrestle one away from a puny looking sophomore. I don't know why he was on our floor. Anyway, I knew it couldn't be true--Wufei would never do a thing like that--but I wanted to show it to you for confirmation.  
  
"I have it on good authority--in other words, my own ears--that Heero dumped Wufei over this. Very loudly, I might add."  
  
Duo looked over the paper, shocked (yet not) over the information on it. He knew damn well that Wufei didn't write it, and he could barely believe that anybody would do that to Wufei and Heero. "Milliardo," he hissed.  
  
"What?" Quatre asked. "Oh! I was looking for you earlier, for something else. I just remembered what it was. I was going to tell you to be nice to Heero, to give him a chance, but if he believes that Wufei could write something like *that*, he's obviously too *stupid* to deserve one. Stupid people should be shot."  
  
"Yes, they should be," Duo agreed, distractedly. He was too busy thinking of painfully gruesome ways to kill Milliardo to listen to Quatre. "Quatre, shut up for a minute. If what you said about Heero dumping him is true, Wufei's going to need comforting. Go to him."  
  
Quatre nodded, then looked at Duo. "Well, where are you going to be while I'm comforting your best friend?"  
  
"Me?" Duo asked. "I'm going to pay your big brother a little visit."  
  
Selune 


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 18  
  
Heero looked up from his spot on the ground at the sound of footsteps. "Took you long enough," he said as Trowa came into view. "I was beginning to think that *nobody* was going to show up." Heero patted the earth beside him. "Well, come on, pull up some dirt."  
  
"I've been looking for you all day," Trowa said, sitting down next to Heero. "At first, I just wanted to see how you were; if you were okay. Then, I wanted to tell you that it was Milliardo who wrote all those things. But you already knew that, didn't you?"  
  
"Yeah," Heero said. "I heard Milliardo last night. He was trying to get Duo to help him. Didn't work, though."  
  
Trowa turned where he could see Heero better. "Then, why? Why would you publicly blame Wufei if you knew that it was Winner?"  
  
Heero shrugged his shoulders. After he'd left Wufei, he'd taken his mental blocks down, so he could feel emotions--his and others'--again, but he couldn't seem to care. That was one of the side effects of the blocks, and the sole reason he didn't use them much.  
  
"I'm just tired, I guess," Heero said. "I've looked after them for so long, been *strong* for so long, that I decided to do something for myself for once. Wufei wasn't Him, but He's so close. I can feel it, but she won't let me see who it is!" Heero looked away from Trowa. "I'm tired of carrying the weight of the world. I've done it for so long, and I just want somebody other than my siblings to help me stay sane."  
  
Heero stayed silent for a few minutes, then spoke on a seemingly different subject. "Did I tell you that I had a sister? I'm not sure if I did. She did wen my mother was pregnant with us--miscarriages are common with the Sidhe. Kali, that's what my Mum was going to name her, was the real Spirit. When she died, I absorbed her power. Just for this lifetime, though; when I die, she'll get it back.  
  
"Her element makes me able to read the minds of others. Not only of the living, but of the dead also.. I can barely eat because of it--the food thinks, and I can hear it. Her power is killing me, and sometimes I wish it would just hurry up and finish the job. It hurts--my heart hurts--all the time. There are too many souls to hear, and they're in so much pain. It's too much." Heero laid his head on Trowa's chest, sad, yet happy that his emotions were coming back.  
  
Trowa pulled Heero close before speaking. "I know how you feel," Trowa said. "Well, not exactly, but I know what it's like to want to die." Trowa stopped, and Heero had to prod him to continue. "I am the result of an...experiment.  
  
"My father, the original protector of my tree, was dying. So he made a deal with the devil. He let a scientist--a Dr. J, I think--impregnate a human with his sperm. My mother, she was an orphan, only twelve years old, Dr. J kidnapped and impregnated her. I grew to term, and then she died when I was born. Her body was too small to handle it. I killed my mother."  
  
"Shh, shh, it's okay," Heero whispered, reaching up to wipe a tear from Trowa's cheek. "It wasn't your fault."  
  
Feeling his friend in pain and need, Heero did the only thing he could think of: he kissed him.  
  
***  
  
Relena Winner burst through the stairwell of the junior floor, surprised to see so many boys milling around. Not thinking much of it, she began shoving her way to Heero's room, shouting, "Lesbian on the floor! Excuse me, lesbian coming through!"  
  
Girls weren't usually allowed on the hall of the boys' dorms, but Relena *did* have two brothers on this floor, and she decided to exploit that fact for all it was worth. She had met the girl Heero must have been talking about--Dorothy Catalonia, what a goddess!--and she absolutely *had* to tell her best friend.  
  
Relena was about to knock on Heero's door when, to her surprise, none other than Duo Maxwell grabbed her shoulders and shouted something at her.  
  
"What?" she asked him, not understanding what he had said.  
  
"I said, "Do you know where Heero is?"" Duo said. "I'm looking for him."  
  
"I figured he was in his room," Relena said, worried because of the look in Duo's eyes. "What's wrong? What happened?"  
  
"You're brother happened," Duo said, shoving a piece of paper at Relena. "He thought Wufei did it, and now Wu-man's all upset."  
  
Relena looked at the paper, and brilliantly deduced that it was Milliardo Duo was talking about. Quatre, her only other brother, would never do anything so cruel. She mulled over where Heero would go--he needed to know that it was Milliardo who did this, and not Wufei--and suddenly it came to her.  
  
"I know where Heero is," she said, grabbing Duo's wrist and dragging him behind her. She raised her voice and yelled at the boys still in the hall. "Part the waters, official lesbian business! Lesbian leaving the floor! Repeat: lesbian leaving the floor!"  
  
***  
  
***3x1 Lemon***  
  
CENSORED--uncensored version at gundam-wing-universe.net  
  
***End Lemon***  
  
***  
  
Rafe, Rhys, Leif, and Eric started running when they heard Heero scream. They'd known where he was, but not what he was doing, until they heard that.  
  
'How could he be so stupid? Rafe thought as they arrived at the grove to find exactly what he had been expecting: Heero, half-naked over some guy, and a big red glowy thing in the background. 'That idiot. He opened the portal.'  
  
Selune 


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 19  
  
Heero looked up from Trowa to see his brothers and Rhys rush into the clearing. He smirked as one of them yelled that they had to close the portal before They escaped. 'It's too late,' Heero thought, as he saw the spirits of the Riders flying overhead.  
  
"You're too late!" he screamed at them. "They're already *here*!" Heero threw his arms out at the sky. "They're here and now we can begin to end this!"  
  
Heero rose from Trowa, pulling his pants up in one motion. He looked down at Trowa, who was still in a post-orgasmic bliss and not completely aware of what was going on. "I have no further use for you," Heero said. Trowa looked up at him, a thousand questions showing in hi eyes, but said nothing.  
  
Heero walked to his brothers, knowing that they would want some explanation as to why he had opened the portal and let the Riders out. He knew that they could see that he had done it deliberately, but what they didn't know was that he had been planning to do this his entire fifteen years as Heero Yuy. He was supposed to; the Riders had to be let onto the Earth when there were only four Elements. As he passed by Rafe, Leif, and Eric, Heero said two words: "Great Flood". He knew that they would understand what he meant by that.  
  
Heero stumbled as one of the Riders entered him through his bare chest. He looked around as the other three Riders entered his brothers. He felt himself slowly be pushed to the back of his own mind as the Rider fought its way in.  
  
Heero hoped that he had done the right thing, as the Rider fully took over his body.  
  
***  
  
A girl, maybe fifteen or so, picked the lock on Heero's trunk. She lifted the lid and hefted the Book of Shadows that Heero was supposed to protect out, placing it on Heero's bed. If she could sweat, she would have been pouring buckets--that book was damn heavy. Especially for a dead person.  
  
She glanced nervously at the clock on the desk, estimating that she had maybe five minutes before They noticed she was missing. She flipped to the last page of the book, right after where Queen Ayiana had written about the Elements.  
  
"Riders," she wrote at the top, "A.K.A., the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The Riders are the fabled four horsemen of the apocalypse. They act their parts as Death, War, Plague, and Famine. The Elements are to keep the portal to their world closed; however, every few thousand years, two of the Elements fuse, making it possible for the Riders to fully control them if and when the portal is opened. The last known sighting of the Riders was the time of the Great Flood. Spirit and Water were fused then, Water having died while in the womb.  
  
"There is no known way to kill the Riders; all known incidents of the Riders end with them being sent back to their world. There is only one person who can send the Riders back to their world: the fused Element. This Element is always fused with Spirit, and it is always the *other* Element (Water in the Great Flood) that sends them back."  
  
Kali hoped that somebody would see that and be able to use it, but she wasn't too optimistic. She had done all she could, though. She left the page open, and faded back to the Waiting Room.  
  
***  
  
Oberon looked at his brothers, the Sidhe bodyguard, and finally, the nymph. He laughed when he saw that the one known as Trowa finally understood what had happened, and what his part had been in it. Oberon crouched down beside the nymph, having walked back over their after gaining control of Earth's body.  
  
"I think Earth is correct," Oberon said, "I have no further use for you." He chuckled deep in his throat as the child tried to break away from Death's gaze. "But first, I want to see if a half-nymph is as connected to his tree as a *real* nymph is."  
  
Oberon walked--no, glided -- to Trowa's tree and put his hand on it. The tree immediately charred, turning to dust in mere seconds.  
  
Oberon turned to his brothers--Bel, Dylan, and Gwydion--and told them to knock out the bodyguard. He watched as his closest brother, Gwydion, sucker punched his host's lover.  
  
"Brothers," Oberon said, and the three looked at him, "we are the harbingers of a new era. We are the bringers of death, war, famine, and plague." He pointed to himself, Bel (in Leif's body), Dylan (in Eric's body), and Gwydion, respectively. "This time, the Element's strongest member is dead. My host, the fused one, does not know how to beat us, and we will prevail. Now, go forth and do your stuff. Make our time here fun and enjoyable for ourselves."  
  
***  
  
Duo and Relena arrived at the grove, only to see an obviously in-pain Trowa. Duo ran to him, paying no attention to his state of dress--or undress, to be more accurate.  
  
"What happened?" Duo asked, cradling Trowa's head in his lap. "Where's Heero?"  
  
Trowa opened his mouth, as if to say something, but no words came out. Duo leaned down and heard the end of what Trowa was saying. "...not Heero. The Horsemen ride again."  
  
Duo rose up, confused by Trowa's words. What wasn't Heero? And what was this about horsemen? Duo didn't have much time to think about this, though, because he soon became aware that he couldn't feel Trowa breathing.  
  
"Trowa?" Duo said, trying to feel for a pulse on the boy's neck. "Trowa! Trowa, answer me! Relena, go get help! Trowa, please be okay!"  
  
Duo barely noticed as Relena took off running to the dorms; he was too busy trying to revive Trowa.  
  
"Trowa!" he screamed. "Trowa, don't you dare die on me!"  
  
Selune 


	20. Chapter 20

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
The Elements  
  
Chapter 20  
  
Oberon walked onto the junior floor, sans shirt, and all eyes turned to look at him. He smirked at the humans, secure in the knowledge that they would do anything to get in his pants. Oberon strode over to the boy that Heero had labeled as "Big and Bulky"; he wanted to have a little fun, a this boy was just what he needed.  
  
"Hey," Oberon said, smiling his sexiest smile up at the taller boy. Several nearby freshman swooned at the sight. "I was just wondering if you still wanted to go on that "date"."  
  
Big and Bulky's jaw dropped in surprise before he recovered his composure. "I would love to," he said. "Would Friday be good for you?"  
  
"No," Oberon said, shaking his head. "Today would be much better. Be outside my door in fifteen minutes." Oberon watched, amused, as the boy who could, seemingly, break him in half nod at his every word. "By the way, what's your name?"  
  
"Ira," Big and Bulky said, eyes never leaving the expanse of Oberon's exposed chest.  
  
"Okay, Ira. You do have a car, right?" Oberon asked. He laughed at the look in Ira's eyes; the one that said he would *get* a car if he didn't have one, even if he had to murder a family of four, their grandmother, arthritic cat, and mailman to do so. "I'll take that as a yes."  
  
He turned from Ira and walked to his room, no one noticing that he didn't use a key to open the locked door.  
  
"Remember, Ira, fifteen minutes," Oberon said, blowing said boy a kiss before going in and closing the door.  
  
***  
  
Quatre looked at his friend sullenly. He sat down beside Wufei and put his arm across his back.  
  
"I don't know why you're so upset," Quatre said. Wufei gave him a weird look, and he corrected himself. "Okay, I do know why you're upset; I just wish you weren't. Heero is obviously not good enough for you. He's a few fries short of a Happy Meal(1) if he truly believes you did that, and he's a horrible person if he doesn't, after what he said to you. There is no way you would *ever* ruin someone's reputation like that--even if you did have sex with him, you wouldn't advertise it. That wouldn't fit into your views of truth, justice, and the honorable way. Anybody who knows you knows that you wouldn't--you couldn't--do something like that."  
  
"I know, I know," Wufei said, looking anywhere but at Quatre. His eyes were bloodshot from crying earlier, and Quatre knew he was embarrassed at showing such a weakness. "I just wish I knew who did it, so I could prove to Heero that it wasn't me."  
  
"Actually..." Quatre hesitated. Duo had seemed to think that Milliardo had something to do with it, but Quatre wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Wufei that. Despite his many, many character flaws, Milliardo was his brother. And he loved him. He wasn't sure what Wufei would do when he found out that it had been Milliardo, Pedophile Extraordinare, who broke up him and Heero. In the end, blood wasn't thicker than friendship. "Actually, Wufei, I might know who did it."  
  
Wufei immediately jerked his head to look at Quatre. "Who?" he demanded.  
  
The look in Wufei's eyes--the one promising a slow, agonizing death to the person or persons responsible for the poster--made Quatre regret his decision to tell Wufei that it was Milliardo. "Well, um, I'm not even sure that he had anything to do with it, but um, the way Duo said it made me think that maybe, just *maybe*, it was him--not Duo, the other guy, and um..." Quatre babbled. "Just the way Duo said it made me think that it might've been, that it could've been, that it *was*..."  
  
"Damnit, Winner! Who did this?" Wufei said. "Who was--"  
  
"Milliardo," Quatre whispered. "I'm not sure, but I think it was Milliardo."  
  
That was enough for Wufei, as Quatre had known it would be. If Quatre had been Wufei, and Trowa been Heero, he would have done the exact same thing, only with lots of blood and dismembered body parts. As it was, Quatre sat helplessly on Wufei's bed as Wufei went to find Milliardo, possibly to kill him.  
  
***  
  
Relena ran as fast as she could toward the boys' campus, as it was closer to the grove than the girls' was. The classroom buildings were closer than the dorms, but she passed them up because they were always locked on Sundays. Finally, she reached a building that wasn't locked.  
  
"He-help me!" she gasped as she stumbled into the lobby of the K-5 dorm. "Somebody call 911!"  
  
"What's wrong?" an elderly lady asked, coming over to Relena from behind the front desk.  
  
Relena grabbed onto the woman's arm. "Trowa's...hurt...woods," she said between mouthfuls of air. She suddenly remembered seeing another man, passed out, near Trowa. "Someone else...hurt...unconcious...Trowa wasn't breathing...Duo with him...Call an ambulance!"  
  
The woman--Debra Woods, according to her nametag--seemed to understand what Relena was saying, or at least, that there was something wrong. Ms. Woods went to back behind the desk, where she picked up the phone and called someone.  
  
Relena let her exhausted body take over when she heard the words: "Yes, this is an emergency." She collapsed to the floor, her mind blank, sent into the peaceful oblivion.  
  
Selune 


	21. Chapter 21

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 21  
  
Oberon entered the dormitory room, and using his hosts knowledge, went straight to Heero's closet. He and Ira were going to a club--a Sidhe club-- so he needed something appropriately slutty to wear. Oberon rummaged through the closet, searching for dark, tight-fitting clothes, preferably leather or silk.  
  
There was nothing in the closet, or rather, nothing wearable. All Heero had was school uniforms and jeans. The only outfit even *remotely* wearable was dirty. The low slung jeans (which, the host supplied, had been worn the previous night) were laying crumpled, in a heap on the floor. Oberon sighed, almost giving up and going to the roomate's--//Duo//, the host said--closet to find something appropriate.  
  
Then, he remembered something. //I'm Earth//, he thought. //It doesn't fucking matter what he has; I'll just change it.//  
  
Mind made up, Oberon grabbed the first outfit he saw--a uniform--and threw it on the bed. He unbuttoned his pants and shimmied out of them, taking off the rest of his clothes with them. He threw them in a corner somewhere.  
  
Oberon pulled on the clean pants, pleased to find that, although hideously plain, they hugged his form in almost all of the right places. Oberon ran his hands over the pants and thought of leather. Black leather. The suppleness of it. The sexiness of it. The way it sounded when he walked. Slowly, the cotton material began to change. The pants tightened, molded to perfectly fit his body. The color darkened, the light khaki seeming to soak up light until it was the blackest of black. The cotton blurred under Oberon's palms, becoming thicker, richer, smoother--leather.  
  
The change complete, Oberon straightened and surveyed himself. He liked what he saw. The pants were a perfect fit; they hugged him just right, cupping his ass, making is look even more attractive--if that was possible.  
  
Yes, he looked good, but he wasn't done yet. Oberon picked up the shirt on the bed--a plain, everyday, white, button-up shirt--and slipped it on his thin shoulders, not bothering to button it. He closed his eyes and, again, ran his hands over the fabric, imagining that it was sleeker, darker.  
  
Images popped into Oberon's mind--black, silk, sex. The top of the shirt crawled across his chest, seeking out its end. The cloth found itself and knitted together, buttons popping off and falling to the floor, no longer needed. It stopped re-knitting above his belly button, leaving a full five inches of his stomach exposed. The collar of the shirt lengthened, melting into the rest of the shirt, forming a boatneck. The sleeves tightened around Oberon's arms and grew to a point, ending at his knuckles. Finally, the shirt darkened to a deep purple, almost black, color.  
  
Oberon opened his eyes and looked at himself. Satisfied with his appearance, he looked for boots in the host's closet. Surprisingly, a relatively good, black pair was in there. Oberon put them on and was pleased to find that they made him a couple of inches taller.  
  
There was a knock at the door, and Oberon went to answer it. He opened the door to find Ira standing there, exactly fifteen minutes after Oberon had come into his room. Ira was wearing jeans--completely not appropriate for the Leannan Sidhe--but that didn't matter. He wasn't going to make it inside, anyway.  
  
"Hi," Oberon said, licking his lips. "You ready to go, sexy?"  
  
***  
  
Wufei stalked out of his room, intent on mangling/murdering Milliardo. He shoved people out of his way, barely registering that they were even there. Then, Wufei came to one person that, no matter how hard Wufei pushed, would not move. He seemed rooted to the spot, staring at something. Wufei gave up trying to move the boy--a massive senior; if he didn't want to move, he wasn't moving--and looked in the direction his face was pointing.  
  
Wufei's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out; it probably would've been quite comical in any other situation. Heero was standing in front of his door, in the sexiest, sluttiest, *hottest* clothes Wufei had ever seen. *God*, he looked like a bronze Adonis--he was pure sex, come to life. In front of Heero stood Ira Gold, the sleaziest player in school. it was well known that he would do anything for a fuck, even if the other person didn't particularly want to.  
  
And Heero was...touching him. Rubbing his fingers through his hair, patting him lightly on the arm. Wufei's blood boiled at the sight. Heero was his! Or rather, he would be, after the whole mess about the poster was cleared up. Wufei couldn't stand it anymore when Ira's palm brushed Heero's cheek--nobody was allowed to touch *his* Heero!--and he stalked over to the pair, pushing any and everybody out of his way until he stood before them.  
  
"Heero," he started, intending to tell him everything and not wait until he could get Milliardo to confess, like he had planned. "I know who made that poster. It was--"  
  
"Milliardo," Heero said, taking his hands off Ira. "I know, Wufei. I knew all along. I should probably thank him, don't you think? After all, he did give me the perfect opportunity to get way from you, and into the arms of a *real* man."  
  
Wufei's mind was reeling. Heero *knew* the whole time, and he still left? //But then, if he knew, why would he accuse me? Why would he break things off with me? For *this* cretin? Surely not.//  
  
"Now, if you'll excuse me, Chang," Heero said, wrapping his arms around Ira's waist, "I have to go. I have a date."  
  
With that, they left, leaving Wufei to stare after them.  
  
***  
  
//--Five, six, seven, eight. Breath. One, two, three...// Duo pumped his hands on Trowa's chest, trying to get his friend to breathe. //Come on, Trowa. Don't die, please don't die. Why the *fuck* didn't I pay more attention in First Aid class?//  
  
Duo had been doing this ever since Relena left, however long ago *that* was. Trowa still wasn't responding. Not one breath, not one beat of his heart, nothing. Duo was almost ready to give up; his friend was going to die because he didn't know how to give CPR properly. It was almost funny-- would be if it wasn't so damn serious.  
  
Duo couldn't help it; he started laughing. One of his best friends was going to die because he didn't pay attention in class. //How's that for irony? People are supposed to kill *me* for goofing off; I'm not supposed to kill *them* because of it.//  
  
Duo threw up his head and laughed loudly. He knew he was hysterical, but he couldn't help it. //Hey, maybe my laughing will let the EMTs know where we are.// That thought made Duo laugh even harder, for some reason.  
  
Duo opened his eyes--he didn't even remember closing them--and almost screamed. Fuck that, he shrieked like a little girl hell-bent on breaking some glass. Not three feet away from Duo stood--er, floated-- a red, circular...window, for lack of a better term. It didn't touch the ground; instead, it hovered about eighteen inches above it. Inside the window, a creature looked out at Duo. It was about three feet tall and looked reptilian in nature. Its face looked like that of a shaved pit bull, only not as pretty, and its ears--at least, what Duo thought were its ears-- stretched down to its knees. It stood on two legs and was a muted green. Kind of like the color most kitchen appliances were in the '70s.  
  
The creature jumped toward the window, and Duo screamed again. It didn't make it through, though. The creature was almost there when the window just kind of...dissolved. It was there one minute, and then, with a *pop*, it was gone.  
  
Duo giggled. It was just so *funny*. //I must be crazy. I just saw a big, dog-looking thing in a floating window in the middle of the forest. What *have* I been smoking?//  
  
Duo barely noticed when the medics arrived. He was too for gone in his hysterics--all he heard were bits and pieces of what they said. He was relieved when one of them shot him up with something, and he was released into la-la land.  
  
Selune 


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 22  
  
Quatre sat in Wufei's room, trying to decide whether or not he should go after Wufei. After all, he *was* planning on hurting Milliardo, but then again, Milliardo definitely deserved it. He *had* tried to kill Wufei's chances with Heero, who even Quatre had to admit, was undeniably gorgeous-- but not more so than Trowa.  
  
//Nobody's cuter than Trowa. He's so hot, with his nice ass, and his freaky hair, and his being all tall and all, and his--//  
  
Quatre's train of thought was broken by the sound of a phone ringing. He looked around the room, and--finally--found Wufei's phone under a blue dress shirt.  
  
"Hello," Quatre said when he picked up the phone.  
  
"Qualta?" a familiar, though slurred, voice said. "Ish dat oo?"  
  
"Yeah," Quatre said. "Duo, what's wrong with your voice? Why are you talking so funny?"  
  
"Neva mind dat," Duo replied. "My tongue'sh jush a li'l bit numb. Lishen, I'm at da hoshpital. Relena and Towla are here. She'sh hurt real bad--in the I-shee-U, and dey won't let me shee her. Towla's uncon-unconciou-- asleep, and he won't wake up. You guysh need to get down here, quick."  
  
Quatre listened to Duo's words, his horror growing by the second. He dropped the phone and ran out of the room.  
  
"Wufei! Milliardo!"  
  
***  
  
Oberon and Ira sat in the latter's car outside of the Lleanan Sidhe. It had taken them forty-five minutes to get to the forest-surrounded club, but it was definitely going to be worth it. The Lleanan Sidhe was the place that all the fae in the area would go to when they were fed up with the human world, or when they just needed some faery interaction.  
  
The music was blasting, some kind of techno music that was mostly synthesized. Faeries were lined up outside of the building, waiting for the bouncer--whose only job was to make sure no humans got in--to let them inside. There were very few cars in the small, gravel parking lot; not enough to hold even half the people in line, much less those already inside the Lleanan Sidhe.  
  
"Heero," Ira said slowly. "Is this a club? Why are we at a club? It's four in the afternoon!"  
  
"Yes, Ira," Oberon said. "It's a very *special* club." Oberon looked up at Ira and laid his hand on the human's thigh. "But I don't think you really care about that. Coming here makes and happy, and a happy me equals a happy you." Oberon rubbed Ira's leg, every upward sweep of his hand getting closer and closer to his groin. "Now, Ira, *baby*, I'm going to give you a choice. Are you listening?"  
  
"Oh, *yes*," Ira moaned, when Oberon's hand ghosted over his crotch.  
  
"Okay. That's good to know," Oberon said huskily. "I'm going to give you two choices." He gave Ira's dick a squeeze through his pants. "First choice: after I get out, you turn this car around and go back to the dorms. Doesn't sound too good does it? No.... Second choice: I kiss you like you've never been kissed before, maybe with a little something extra thrown in."  
  
"The-the second one," Ira said, his eyes rolling back into his head when Oberon squeezed his member again.  
  
"Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive?" Oberon asked, wanting to confirm that this was what the human wanted.  
  
"Oh, *God*, yes," Ira said, trying to arch up into Oberon's touch.  
  
"Okay, then," Oberon smirked. //That's what they all say.//  
  
Oberon swung his leg over Ira and straddled him. It was sort of a tight fit--because of the steering wheel--but he made it work. Oberon took Ira's cheeks in his palms, and seeing the lust in the other's eyes, he bent down to kiss him.  
  
***  
  
The kiss was intense. A simple press of lips had been more exquisite. Ira felt that he could write sonnets about that kiss--the soft, yet demanding, pressure of Heero's hands on his cheeks; how Heero's *breath* even smelled of sex; every tiny crevice and bump of Heero's lips.  
  
Ira wanted to give up his player ways and devote himself to Heero. He wanted to follow him for forty years through an arid desert, to sit at his feet and stare longingly at him, to do *anything* as long as he was close to Heero.  
  
Ira felt his breath becoming shallower, his heartbeats fewer and farther between, but he didn't care. He was with Heero, and that was all that mattered. All that mattered was...Heero.  
  
***  
  
Oberon opened the car door and crawled off the freshly dead body of Ira Gold. He had been so predictable in his death; it was disappointing, really. He hadn't fought at all; he'd just gone along quietly with anything that had to do with his *precious* Heero. Oberon snorted and walked away from the car, not bothering to shut the door.  
  
//Now's the time for the *real* fun//, Oberon thought, as he walked up to the bouncer.  
  
***  
  
Duo paced back and forth in the small waiting room, waiting (how cliche, *waiting* in a *waiting* room) for his friends--and Milliardo. He was on the sixth floor, the cardiac ward, which was where they had put Trowa. One of the nurses had told him that Trowa had some kind of heart attack and passed out from the pain--he still hadn't woken up yet.  
  
Relena was in intensive care, on the seventh floor. That was all anybody would tell Duo, and if they weren't going to let him see Trowa yet, they definitely weren't letting him see her. Duo couldn't figure out what had happened to her; she had been fine the last time he saw her. But from what Duo had heard--he eavesdropped when he went up to the seventh floor to check on her--another woman, Debra Woods, had been brought in, unconscious, along with Relena.  
  
Duo himself was feeling much better after his brief bout of insanity. One of the EMTs had doped him up with something--Fluvoxacreavitaotine or something like that--and after a short spell of unconsciousness, he felt more like himself, except that it had made his tongue numb for a little while.  
  
"Duo!" somebody called out. Duo stopped pacing and looked up to see Quatre and Wufei walking toward him. Quatre looked half out of his mind with worry, and Wufei looked quite upset, too. "What happened?"  
  
"Well, it was like this," Duo said. "I was looking for Heero, and Relena thought she might know where to kind him. So we went to this clearing in the woods, only Heero wasn't there. Trowa was, though. Half-naked and not breathing. 'Lena went to get help, and I tried giving Trowa CPR. The EMTs showed up, and they brought me and Trowa and some other dude--that I hadn't even noticed--here. When I got here, I learned that Relena was brought here, too, only she was in ICU. And that's when I called you, Quat." Duo decided not to tell his friends about the floating window or his hysterics-- they didn't need to know that. "By the way, where's Milliardo? I figured he'd be here."  
  
"He's waiting to see Relena, and for our parents to get here," Quatre said. "Do you know when we can see Trowa?"  
  
Duo shook his head. "I'm not really sure, but I figure he has to wake up first."  
  
Quatre nodded and was about to sit down when a nurse came into the waiting room.  
  
"Duo Maxwell?" she asked. Duo nodded his head, and she continued. "You came in with Trowa Barton?" Again, Duo nodded his head. "Okay, well, he's awake. You can go in and see him now.  
  
Selune 


	23. Chapter 23

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 23  
  
Oberon walked up to the bouncer-a big, tall black man who looked who, but that he knew was Sidhe-a huge smile plastered on his adorable face. "Excuse me. Sir," Oberon said in the cutest voice the host's vocal cords could muster.  
  
"Back of the line, Kid," the bouncer said without turning to face Oberon. He seemed to dismiss Oberon then and let three pixies enter after they had shown proper identification; i.e., their wings.  
  
"But, sir, if you would just-"  
  
"Listen, Kid," the bouncer said, back still turned away from Oberon, "I have to let these people in. If I don't let them in, they tend to get antsy. If they get antsy, they tend to get rowdy. If they get rowdy, they tend to get in fights. And if they get in fights, people tend to get hurt. Therefore, I have to take care of the people in line. If you want in the club, go to the end of the line. If, for some reason, you want to talk to me, go to the end of the line. If you-"  
  
The bouncer stopped suddenly when he turned around and saw that it was none other than "Prince Heero" he had been speaking to so harshly. The bouncer fell to the ground and prostrated himself--on his knees, in the yoga "child position", no less--before his beloved "prince."  
  
"I am so sorry, Prince Heero. I did not know it was you," pleaded the bouncer. "Please forgive me, Your Highness. I did not even know you were in the area. We--meaning the local Sidhe, of course--were not informed that *this* is where you would be staying. That, of course, does not excuse my actions. I have no excuse. I should have known it was you from the start--"  
  
"Sh," Oberon said, placing two fingers over the bouncers lips, effectively silencing him. Oberon had crouched down in front of the bouncer during his babbling speech, and he now helped the stricken man get up. "It's okay; I forgive you." Oberon smiled up at the bouncer with falsely kind eyes, trying to put him at ease. It seemed to work.  
  
"Thank you, Your Highness," the bouncer said, the tension visibly leaving his shoulders. "Is there anything I can do for you, other than let you into our fine establishment?"  
  
"Actually, there is," Oberon said, mentally smirking. "Is the owner of the club here?"  
  
"The Leanan Sidhe? Yes, she is. Every day, she stays here from sunrise to sunset. Then, at night, her sister--the Lliannan-She--comes in and stays until sunrise. Nobody talks to her, though, for obvious reasons. But, yes, the Leanan Sidhe is here."  
  
"And where, pray tell, is she?" Oberon asked, giving the bouncer Heero's award winning (Most Likely to Make Men Do Your Bidding, No Questions Asked 2002-awarded by Rhys) smile.  
  
"She's in the back room. Normally, customers aren't allowed back there, but you can go. Just ask Carl to take you back. And tell him that Jack sent you," the bouncer replied.  
  
"And are you Jack?" Oberon asked, running his hand up the exposed length of the bouncer's arm  
  
"Y-yes," the bouncer--now known as Jack the bouncer--stuttered. "W-would you like to go in now?"  
  
"Yes, I would like that very much, *Jack*," Oberon said when Jack the bouncer stepped aside to allow him entrance.  
  
***  
  
Duo practically ran to Trowa's room when he heard the nurse's words, Quatre and Wufei following close behind him. He reached the door and turned the knob, ready to fling it open and glomp his friend and never let him go. Ever, ever, ever. But Duo stopped when he saw a flash of silverish hair and heard the sound of two voices talking.  
  
Quatre and Wufei, unaware that Duo had stopped, ran into Duo, almost causing the door to fly out of his grasp. He turned around and gave the two a glare worthy of Headmistress Une's when she was PMSing and had just dealt with thirteen rowdy ten year-old boys (and Duo should know, he had been one of those thirteen; God, she had been scary that day). Or, at least, Duo *hoped* that was what his glare looked like. Aside from the absence of laughter, Duo had no way to be sure that he didn't look more like Barney the Purple Dinosaur, about to make beautiful hats out of paper, glitter, and lots of love.  
  
"Be quiet," Duo hissed at the two, who had started to protest when they saw that Duo wasn't going into Trowa's room any time soon. "There's already somebody in there with him, and I, for one, want to hear what they're saying."  
  
Quatre and Wufei looked slightly confused, then they slowly nodded their heads in unison, indicating their consent. "Okay, Duo," Quatre said. "But as soon as they shut up, I'm going in. With or without you."  
  
***  
  
Trowa had awoken in a strange place, not remembering why he was there or how he had come to be there. He heard the beeps, clicks, and whirls or various machines and felt the weight of the heart monitor on his index finger, but he did not attribute any importance to either of these. It was not until he opened his eyes and saw the face of the vaguely familiar man at his bedside that the events of the last few hours came crashing back down to him. Telling the circumstances of his birth. Being comforted by"  
  
//Oh, Gods,// Trowa thought, trying to sit up. //I should be dead. Why am I not dead?//  
  
"I don't know," the strange man said, making Trowa realize that he had just spoken his thoughts aloud. "I was hoping you could tell me."  
  
"I-I don't know," Trowa said, rubbing his chest. It hurt immensely, and the sticky pads the doctors put on him to monitor his body were itching around there. "What happened?"  
  
"Again, hoping you could tell me," the man said. Trowa noticed he had an eye patch over his right eye and wondered what happened to it. He dismissed the thought, though-it was not relevant to the matter at hand. "I didn't get to the scene until *after* you and Heero were finished diddling each other, so I don't know much. However, I *do* know that, at this moment, Heero is not Heero, and his brothers are not his brothers. I also know that Rafe (even if it wasn't really Rafe) packs a hell of a punch... By the way, I'm Rhys, the princes' official Sidhe bodyguard. Guess I didn't do too good a job, did I?"  
  
"I'm sure you did your best," Trowa said, distracted. He thought he heard a gasp when Rhys said "diddled," and then another when he said "princes'," but Trowa couldn't be sure. The only thing he could be sure of was the massive weight on his chest and the emptiness in his heart as the full gravity of what happened came crashing down on him.  
  
His tree had died. And he had not.  
  
Selune 


	24. Chapter 24

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 24  
  
Trowa took a deep breath. In and out. In and out. Just like they had been taught in first aid--in order to stave off panic, one had to regulate one's breathing. And unlike some people, Trowa actually listened in class. Trowa had three things to figure out before he could talk to that man--he *knew he had met him before, somewhere--and in order to do that, he needed to be calm.  
  
First, his tree was dead. There was no doubt about it in Trowa's mind; other than the fact that he had seen it charred worse than a hamburger on a broken electrical grill, there was also the fact that he could no longer feel his tree. The comforting presence in the back of his mind was no longer there. Instead, it felt as though someone (the not-Heero) had taken a blow torch to his brain. It left him feeling oddly empty inside.  
  
The second thing, of course, was that he *should* be dead. It was Dryad physiology, it was their history, their entire reason for being. A tree- nymph lived to protect his tree. When he failed to do so, or the tree was simply too old to continue living, he died. For a Dryad to live after his tree was dead was unheard of. Not only that, it was unthinkable. But obviously not impossible.  
  
Which brought Trowa to the third and final thing. He was *not* dead. And his tree *was*. How could that be? How could Trowa Barton, protector of the tree Heavyarms (named for its especially big branches), Half-Nymph Extraordinaire, live while his tree died? And that, of course, was the answer. Half. Trowa was *half* nymph and *half* human. His human side must have canceled out his nymph side, leaving him feeling as though he was half a person. Or maybe that was more accurate. Maybe he was half a person. Maybe his nymph side *had* died, and he only his human side remained. Either way, Trowa was alive.  
  
"--Kid? Are you all right?" the strange man with the eye patch asked. It was then that Trowa realized he had been staring off into space, probably for a good five minutes.  
  
"Trowa. My name is Trowa," Trowa said, "and I'm okay. Just spaced out for a minute there, but I'm fine now. And you are...?" He was sure that he knew the man's name, that he had met him before, but he couldn't place it.  
  
"Rhys," the man answered. "Official Sidhe bodyguard of the princes Leif, Eric, Rafe, and Heero." Rhys's chest puffed out a little at that, in pride. "Anyway, back to the matter at hand. You know something about what happened with Heero. You tell me all you know about what happened, and I'll tell you all I know. Deal?"  
  
Rhys stretched out his hand in a universal gesture, and Trowa shook it.  
  
"Deal," he said. "Though I don't know exactly how it'll help."  
  
"I'm not exactly sure yet myself, kid--Trowas," Rhys said, sighing, "but maybe whatever you tell me will help me figure out the whys and what-fors. Also, anything's gotta be better than sitting here in this room, waiting for them to start killing again."  
  
Again? Had they killed already? Trowa didn't know, but he suspected that Rhys would tell him eventually, after he told what he knew.  
  
"Well, I was looking for Heero because I knew he'd be upset. I looked for him everywhere, then realized that he would probably be in the clearing. He seemed to like it--"  
  
"Why was he upset?" Rhys interrupted.  
  
Trowa was startled at the question. Didn't Rhys know about Heero and Wufei? //Well, obviously not, or he wouldn't have asked,// Trowa thought. //I don't know *what* he knows about Heero's last few days. After all, he hasn't been here.//  
  
"I didn't realize that you didn't know the whole story," Trowa said. "I supposed I should start at the beginning."  
  
Trowa settled back into his bed--he wanted to be comfortable if he was going to tell a long tale.  
  
"Heero and his brother's got to school on Friday," Trowa said. "I didn't see any of them until supper, when Heero came in with Milliardo Winner, the juniors' R. A. When he came in the room, a friend of mine, Duo Maxwell, told me, in a not-so-nice way, that Heero was his roommate. He made quite clear to those of us sitting at the table with him that he didn't like Heero at all, at which point Wufei Chang told us that he had kissed Heero. He--"  
  
"I remember him," Rhys interrupted, again. "He's the little pedophile that forced himself on poor, little, innocent Heero when he was at camp one year. I remember Leif telling me about it when I picked them up. So, what did he do to Heero this time?"  
  
"With respect, Mr...."  
  
"Sidhe. Just call me Rhys Sidhe."  
  
"Mr. Sidhe, Heero is neither poor nor innocent. Not if last night is any indication. Little, I will conced that one. He is a short, little thing."  
  
"Yes, size-wise he does take more after King Legarion--elves are short like that. But his looks are all Ayiana's. Except for the ears. Anyway, continue your story."  
  
"Okay, sir. Well, Milliardo had kind of marked Heero as his, as the one he was going to pursue, by walking him into the cafeteria. Wufei didn't care, and he asked Heero out on a date. They went out, and this morning there were posters all over the junior floor--apparently written by Wufei--saying that Heero was a slut who would fuck anything with a dick and a pulse, providing a few things were done. Then it went on to detail exactly how to get Heero into bed. There was also a grainy picture that indicated that they were having sex.  
  
"I saw the poster and went looking for Heero. I looked everywhere in the dorm I could think of, Heero's room, the cafeteria, his brother's room-- that's where I know you from!--and went back to Heero's room to check one more time if he was there. I didn't get to see, though, because Duo and Quatre Winner--Milliardo's brother--came out of it. I thought they might know something, so I followed Duo.  
  
"He ended up at Milliardo's door, and they had words. I eavesdropped on them, and it turned out the Milliardo made the posters. He wanted Heero to dump Wufei, so he could swoop in and pick up the pieces. Be Heero's knight in shining armor, so to say.  
  
:"I knew then that I definitely had to find Heero. I had to tell him that Wufei didn't do it. I went to the clearing--we met there Friday night--and he was there. I found out that he already knew about Milliardo. Looking back, of course he knew. He is Spirit, after all.  
  
"I asked him why he did it then--why he dumped Wufei if he knew that Wufei had nothing to do with his humiliation. He-he looked at me then, and his eyes just seemed so dead. He was crying, but I don't think he realized it. He just seemed so *lost*.  
  
"He told me--he said--that, for once, he wanted to do something for *himself*. He wanted to make *himself* happy. Wufei wasn't the One, he said, but He was close. Heero said that he could feel Him--his beloved, his soulmate, his meant-to-be--so nearby, but that some mysterious "she" wouldn't let him see who it was. All he knew was that it wasn't Wufei.  
  
"Then, he told me about his sister, about Kali. He told me how she died, and how he absorbed her power. He told me how he could read the minds of everyone, even dead animals and plants. He told me how much it hurt him, to hear their thoughts and their screams. He wasn't meant to have that power, I don't think, not ever. I think it was slowly killing him, slowly driving him insane.  
  
"He felt so horrible; I could feel it myself, his grief was so tangible. Something so beautiful--so *pure* and holy--should never be in so much pain. I told him something about myself, something I had never told anyone before. By the time I finished, we were both crying, and *he* was comforting *me* again.  
  
"For some reason, he kissed me. It wasn't a romantic kiss, nor was it a just-friends kiss. It was, somehow, both in between the two and nothing like them. It was everything I never knew I always wanted. I don't know when, but somewhere along the line, the kiss changed. I became fiery, sexual. He was ripping at our clothes; I couldn't have said "no" even if I wanted to. And believe me, I didn't want to. If asked, I wouldn't have even been able to say a...certain *other* person's name. And *he's* all I think about. It was *that* passionate, like a drug. Heero was a drug that I couldn't get enough of.  
  
"Then it was over--the kiss and what came after--and everything was different. *Heero* was different. He wasn't Heero anymore.  
  
"I don't remember much after that, accept, of course, when Heero, or whoever he was, killed my tree. I will carry that memory to my death. Speaking of which, why am I not dead?"  
  
"No," Rhys said. He looked down at his hands, folded in his lap. "But then again, I'm not exactly sure what you are. Maybe Fate was not ready for you to die?"  
  
***  
  
Quatre saw red. The words were in front of his eyes, dancing. Taunting him in a little singsong voice, "Heero fucked Trowa, Heero fucked Trowa." Over and over, it sang. Hero had sex with *Quatre's* Trowa. Everything else was moot--Sidhe, Spirit, mind-reading, all that other mumbo-jumbo Trowa had been talking about. All that was important was what Trowa had implied.  
  
Quatre pushed Duo and Wufei out of the way and threw open the door to Trowa's room. He stalked in, not noticing the shocked looks on the faces of his friends. He walked up to Trowa, his left hand clenching convulsively, hoping to hit something--hoping to beat Heero.  
  
"What the *fuck* is going on?" Quatre demanded, staring down into Trowa's eyes.  
  
Selune 


	25. Chapter 25

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 25  
  
Oberon followed Carl, ignoring the catcalls directed at him, then the shameless groveling as the catcallers realized just who he was. He was brought to a room in the back of the club—it was so far way from the dance floor that Oberon could barely hear the music. The atmosphere, warm and earthy in the customer-allowed portion, faded into that of wanton lust as he came closer to the owners' quarters. Carl stopped and motioned for Oberon to go on without him—the Leanan Sidhe was waiting for him at the end of the hall, last door on the right.  
  
Oberon knew, through his host's past experiences, that a lesser fey than he would go mad with desire were he to venture further into the heart of the vampire faery's chambers. He also knew that, at night, the Leanan Sidhe would go out hunting for humans to suck dry. She would inspire them in their art, in exchange for their life's essence. She usually burned them out quickly—too much so to get more than one piece of art out of them.  
  
In contrast, her sister, the Lliannan-She, was much more subtle and innocent in her endeavors. She would wander the forests during the day, waiting for someone—anyone—to speak to her. She would then leech onto her unsuspecting victim, fueling his creativity, driving him to create more masterpieces, bigger and more beautiful than any before. She would follow him always, alternately sucking him dry of his essence (made sweeter and more powerful by his creations) and letting him recuperate until such time when he could no longer pick up a pen, or a brush, or a microphone, at which time she left him to die, mourning the loss of his constant companion.  
  
It was blasphemy against everything faerykind held dear, to kill such bringers of beauty and art (even if they brought it at the cost of innocent lives), and that was exactly why Oberon had come to the club that afternoon. He had finally reached the Leanan Sidhe's quarters, and he fought off the almost-insatiable urge to sing.  
  
Oberon opened the door the find a young woman of ethereal beauty staring back at him. Her hair was the color of deepest ruby, flowing (wavy) down her back. It was loose and reached almost to her knees. Her eyes were living emeralds, with just a hint of gold speckled throughout. Her skin was peaches and cream perfect, not a freckle or scar in sight. Oberon knew that if he touched it, it would be as soft as a newborn baby's. She was wild and unattainable and angelic and staring right at him. Her eyes bored into him, trying to decide if he was friend or foe, ally or enemy, predator or prey.  
  
She must have found what she was searching for because she bowed to Oberon—her knees on the floor, her back arched so her hands could lay in front of her, her head down, eyes on the floor. She did not speak a word. She did not chatter to him about how privileged she was to be visited by royalty. She did not beg his forgiveness for her earlier scrutiny. She did not do *anything*, merely stayed as she was and waited for Oberon to acknowledge her.  
  
//Finally, someone who knows the rules of how to properly receive a prince,// Oberon thought, wryly. He smirked down at her, thinking how fitting it was that one of her kind was to be his first kill this time around. Well, not his *first* kill, but the human hardly mattered. Humans were little more than vermin anyway—little rats with which to play while he waited for the big fish to fry. Oberon smiled down at Heero's loyal subject—a smile that would bring terror into the hearts of any that knew it, had they been alive to see it.  
  
"Look at me, Ariana," he said. His smile widened as she raised her head to look at him; her eyes showed not blind devotion, not unparalleled love, but reluctant resignation of her forced servitude to him as Prince of All Sidhe, Leanan or otherwise.  
  
"Do you know why I'm here?" he asked her. Recognizing that it was not a rhetorical question, she shook her head "no." Another correct procedure: do not deign to know the motivations of your betters.  
  
Oberon smiled again, but a wistful smile this time. The girl's actions made him remember a better time, a simpler time. A time when humans were treated like they deserved to be treated–as less than a bug underneath one's shoe–and the fey roamed the world as they pleased. A time when the Riders were more than disembodied spirits, forced to parasite themselves on powerful, corporeal beings, forced to spend their lives in a hell dimension crawling with life forms even lower than humans. It was a time when Those- Who-Would-Become-Riders ruled with impunity, a time before *Her*. This girl looked much like Her but was, of course, much prettier.  
  
"Of course you don't know," Oberon said. "I haven't told you yet." He lifter her head and put his mouth against her ear–his lips were close enough to brush against it as he talked, and she shivered at the contact. "I've come to have your customers dance for me."  
  
He stepped away from her and watched her squirm, her eyes silently begging to fulfill her curiosity. "Ask your question," he said, and she almost sighed with relief.  
  
"What will you have them dance, My Prince?" Ariana asked.  
  
"Why, they shall dance the Dance of Death!" Oberon exclaimed, loving the look of astonishment in her eyes at his words. The Dance of Death was used only at funerals. It was danced only at the death ceremonies of very important faeries or at mass funerals after a great tragedy. It was not danced often, as most fey lived long lives and rarely warred enough to have a body count high enough to warrant such a Dance. However, every faery knew of it and could dance it if need be, for one could never determine when one might need to.  
  
"Who shall the Dance be for?" Ariana asked, not waiting for permission to speak or using any of the prince's appropriate titles.  
  
"Why, you, of course," Oberon answered. "All of you."  
  
Oberon smirked as her eyes widened. Her mouth formed an "O," and she scrambled to her feet. She tried to run, but there was nowhere to go, as Oberon was standing in the doorway. He laughed inside as she perfected her deer-in-headlights look, before growing bored with her. He flicked his wrist in her general direction, thought of death, and she collapsed. No longer did she have to worry about princely protocol. No longer did she have to feed ideas to unsuspecting artists as she fed off their life force. No longer did she have to do anything. Ariana's dead eyes stared after Oberon as he left, attesting to the fact that their owner no longer had any obligations.  
  
Oberon laughed as he headed back to the main room of the club. He always *had* liked one-on-one deaths the best!  
  
***  
  
Heero awoke to darkness–a black so deep as to be impenetrable.  
  
//Where am I?// he thought, holding his hand to his head. //What happened?//  
  
He scrambled to his feet, then wished he hadn't as his head split in two.  
  
//Ow,// he thought, falling back down. When he landed, it was like a button was pushed in hi, and he remembered everything that had happened over the last few days. Duo. Wufei. Trowa.  
  
Was Trowa okay? Heero hoped he was. It was all his fault if he wasn't. But Heero *had* tried to help. He'd pushed all of the power he could command into his friend when the Rider–whichever one had entered him–had killed Trowa's tree. Hopefully, along with Trowa's unique physiology, he had lived, with no permanent damage. What he'd done for Trowa must've been the cause for his blackout, though, because he'd been instantly aware of where he was the other three times a Rider had overtaken his body.  
  
Oh, yes, of course. *That's* where he was. Heero was in what he and his siblings had so aptly dubbed "The Black Room." It was exactly the same as, yet completely different from, "The White Room" in almost every respect. He was trapped in his own brain, in the portion that even the most powerful corporeal being didn't use. He felt around the "room" for the device that would allow him to see–but, for some reason, not hear–the world as the Rider saw it.  
  
He finally stumbled across some type of chair. He sat in it to find that it was slightly Virtual Reality-like. Heero reached up behind the chair to find a half-helmet thing. It was like a motorcycle helmet with the bottom half cut off. He put it on and settled back to watch. That was really all he *could* do, until the opportunity arose to take back control of his body.  
  
The Rider was in a club somewhere. He was walking away from the corpse of a red-haired lady...  
  
Selune 


	26. Chapter 26

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 26  
  
Trowa stared at Quatre as he burst into the room, Duo and Wufei following after him. He wasn't that surprised that someone had been listening to him and Rhys–he'd heard several "gasp"s and "shh"s from behind the door–but what *did* surprise him was Quatre's reaction. His anger. Trowa was trying to figure out how to placate Quatre when Rhys spoke.  
  
"Sit down, human," he said to Quatre. "We do not have time to deal with your petty grievances. We have much more important matters to discuss." Rhys pointed to Duo and Wufei. "You two, also. You've already heard this much–just how much, I don't know, but it's enough–you might as well hear the rest."  
  
Trowa snorted as Duo and Wufei snapped their gaping mouths shut, and they and Quatre sat in some plastic hospital chairs. The Sidhe always had thought they were better than humans, and seeing Rhys order his friends around like dogs (and said friends actually *obeying* his orders) was insulting–yet a little funny.  
  
"Okay," Rhys said, when all three boys were seated. "Trowa, I told you I'd tell you all I knew, and I will. It'll be a little hard to tell, though, as there is so much known about the Riders, yet very little of it is of any use. I guess "begin at the beginning" is always an intelligent thing to do, so I shall.  
  
"No one knows how or why the Riders came about. Some say that they were once humans that were changed into the Riders after angering some demigod or other–Strife, maybe. Others say that the Riders were born as such–evil beings forced to use others' bodies in order to do any damage–that they were born as Riders, live as Riders, and will die as Riders. And still others say that they were created by the God and Goddess themselves–bless their names–at the same time as the Elements, as the Evil to their Good. The Chaos to their Order.  
  
"But they're just theories. As I said before, nobody *truly* knows the origins of the Riders. All anybody *really* knows of is their first confrontation with the Elements. The–"  
  
"Excuse me," Duo said, interrupting Rhys, "but who are the Elements? And what do they do?"  
  
Rhys looked exasperated that he was going to have to explain something so *simple* to someone over five years old. Trowa caught his eye and motioned that he would tell it.  
  
"Duo, are you aware of the five elements of the Middle Ages?" Trowa asked his friend, looking directly into Duo's eyes. He wanted to get it across to Duo that the question was a serious one. He could see Wufei and Quatre out of his periphial vision, as they were sitting on either side of Duo, but he focused only on violet eyes.  
  
"Well, yeah. Kinda," Duo said. "Some scientist hypothesized that everything was made of these elements that were really just compounds or chemical reactions. I don't really remember his name, though, I kind of fell asleep during that lesson. And anyway, I thought there were only four elements, you know. Earth, water, air, and fire. But what's that got to do with anything? They're not real elements. Technetium, Promethium, Curium. *Those* are real elements."  
  
"They're also all synthetically prepared," Trowa said, automatically. It had been drilled into him during Intro to Chemistry–the Psycho-Bitch-From- Hell's class. "But the other Elements are reall, too. Sort of. There are five of them–Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Spirit. They were created at the beginning of time, and work to keep the Riders out of our world. They keep the Order–without their prescense, whether in corporeal form or disembodied–you'd be pulled apart at the seams."  
  
Duo looked confused, as did Wufei and Quatre, and Trowa felt a pang of sympathy for them. After all, it *was* some pretty unbelievable information to take in. Of course, the next piece of straw might break the camel's back in five, four, three, two...  
  
"You said corporeal," Wufei stated, and Trowa moved his eyes to lock on his. He nodded his head. "Do you mean that they can be *human*?"  
  
"Yes," Trowa said. "But as far as I know, they rarely ever are human. They usually take other forms. I believe that at the moment, they are faeries. Half Sidhe and half Elf."  
  
//That wasn't so bad,// Trowa thought to himself. //I thought for sure that I'd have to tell them about Heero.//  
  
"Yeah, and that's enough info on the Elements, my little nymphet," Rhys said, effectively silencing any questions the trio of humans might have asked. "Back to the Riders–their first fight with the Elements. There was only four of them, as Wter had died in the womb. They were werewolves in that life and all in the same litter. Spirit absorbed Water's power.  
  
"The remaining four were about twenty-four when the Riders attacked. The Riders were non-corporeal by that time, and they entered the Elements' bodies. The leader, Death, entered the—for lack of a better term—Dual- Element. The Riders—Death, War, Plague, and Famine—terrorized the known world before Spirit killed them after nine months. She used her "borrowed" Element and drowned them in a flood.  
  
"The next two times it happened in almost the exact same way. The five were multiple birtsh, one died, and she took over their power. She killed the Riders those times by erupting a volcano and then by pulling them into tornadoes. All three times, the Riders were banished into a hell dimension, but it was at a great cost. Many people died, as well as the Elements themselves. But this time it's different..."  
  
"How so?" Duo asked.  
  
Trowa bit his lip as he wondered what his friends—especially Wufei—was going to think of the answer.  
  
"Because this time, it was Spirit who died. Earth took her power into him," Rhys answered, "and I don't know if Heero can beat them."  
  
***  
  
Oberon stood outside of the club, looking up at the policeman with tears in his eyes. Someone not loyal to Heero—probably a succubus, they weren't loyal to anyone but themselves and Oberon had seen one or two lurking around—had figured out what he did to Ariana and had called the police.  
  
The unit had arrived at the scene of the massacre to find one survivor. A sniffling, terrified boy by the nam of Heero Yuy.  
  
"Oh, God, it was so horrible!" Oberon exclaimed to the officer standing by the car with him. His partner had gone to look inside the club, and he had stayed behind to call for backup and comfort the distressed teen. "The killed everybody! I was so scared! I was sure they were going to find me and kill me, too!" Oberon broke down and launched himself into the cop's arms, sobbing his eyes—and lungs, for greater believability—out.  
  
"Hey, kid, it's okay now," The man said, patting Oberon on the back, obviously uncomfortable with having an armful of crying boy. "Why don't you come down to the station with me and Officer Hendrix, and you can tell us exactly what happened, okay? You don't have to be scared, kid, you're safe now."  
  
"I know I'm safe," Oberon said, sneering into the cop's chest. His tears dried, and his demeanor changed. "But I 'm not so sure about you. Oh, and I don't need to go anywhere to tell you what happened—I'd much rather show you right here."  
  
The policeman—Officer Fordman, his badge read—stepped back, realization dawning on his features. He tried to run away, but Oberon grabbed his forearms, forcing him to stay. He let go of one arm, and Fordman started screaming. Oberon ignored the man's pleas for mercy and laid his free hand on the man's chest.  
  
"I would say that this isn't going to hurt, but it is—a lot," Oberon warned, before rearing back and punching his fist into the cop's chest cavity. Oberon clutched Fordman's heart and tore it out of his body, letting go of his arm as he did so. The body fell as Oberon stepped back, a look—amazingly—of both disgust and enjoyment on his face.  
  
"Ray, don't let the kid go back in there. It's a blood bath—there were body parts everywhere. It must be some kind of theme club, too, because I swear I saw some wings and other costume parts." Officer Hendrix said on his way back to the squad car. "Whoever did this is a psychopath."  
  
That was so nice, what he said about him, although Oberon thought himself more along the lines of "sociopath." Oberon dropped the heart in his hand and walked toward Hendrix. It was time for the cop to find out just how right he was, and how much fun it could be!  
  
Selune 


	27. Chapter 27

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 6+1, 5+1, implied 3+4, R+H, H+9+H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 27  
  
Oberon picked up the cop's head and carried it with him to the squad car. The mouth was open in a silent scream, and Oberon thought it would make a nice dashboard toy. Officer Hendrix's body lay on the ground, not caring what its head was up to. Oberon put the head in the passenger seat and got in behind the wheel. He had some "friends" to meet.  
  
Oberon drove away, singing under his breath. "Off to the hospital we go. Off to the hospital we go. Hi ho the dairy-o, off to the hospital we go!"  
  
***  
  
Duo stared at Rhys. Duo stared at Trowa. Duo stared at Wufei and Quatre. Duo stared at the floor.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Wufei exclaimed.  
  
Duo stared at Wufei again. "Obviously, he meant that Heero is the Dual- Element. Didn't you?" Duo looked at Rhys for confirmation of this.  
  
"Yes," Rhys said. "Heero is Earth and Spirit. His brothers are Fire, Water, and Air."  
  
"And that red glowy thing I saw after Relena went to get help, that was the portal that brought the Riders here, wasn't it?"  
  
Rhys nodded his head. "Then what, or who, opened it? Who would be so *stupid* as to let them out?" Duo demanded.  
  
"Well, that would be sex and me, respectively," Trowa answered. "And Heero, of course."  
  
Before Duo could demand a reason, Trowa gave him one. "Sex in a consecrated place desecrates it. The grove you found me and Rhys in was just such a place. The Yuys found it their first night here, and they thought it was the place where the portal would most likely be. I'm not going to go into any long winded explanations--I will later, if you want me to and we're still alive--but let's just say that they knew the portal was going to be there and that it would open if they didn't keep it shut. They performed a ritual that prevented the Riders from opening it.  
  
"When Heero and I had sex in the area, we destroyed its sanctity and, thus, the magic preventing the Riders from opening the gateway. The Riders took over the Elements' bodies, killed my tree, and went on a nice killing spree- -wait, did you say Relena was with you?" Trowa said to Duo.  
  
"Yeah, she collapsed after she got help, or something like that. She's in intensive care right now. We were going to go see her after we saw you."  
  
"Were there any other women admitted to ICU, that you know of?" Trowa asked, growing visibly agitated.  
  
Duo frowned and bit his lip--he couldn't think of anybody. A look at Quatre assured him that Quatre didn't know, either.  
  
"Yeah," Wufei said, so quietly that Duo wasn't sure everybody heard him. "I think--I think Debra woods was admitted about the same time as Relena." He turned to Duo. "Isn't she the--"  
  
"The receptionist at the elementary boy's dorm," Trowa said. "That's the one closest to the grove. Relena must have gone to that one. Quatre, you need to--" Trowa was cut off as the door banged open.  
  
"Mister Winner, you should go see your sister dearest," a familiar voice hissed.  
  
***  
  
Oberon smirked as he saw the expressions on the faces that looked at him. Adoration that turned to hatred. Apprehension. Fear. Confusion. Lust. He stepped aside as the blond boy hurried past him, presumably to go to his sister.  
  
He chuckled as he grabbed Quatre's wrist. "Tell Miss Relena that Heero says 'Hi,'" he said, before letting him go. That one smelled of fear and hatred and--most important of all--jealousy.  
  
Oberon's smirk got wider as he turned back to the others. He was in *such* a good mood. There had been looting and mass panic in the streets on his way to the hospital--Bel was really good at his job. Gwydion was also apparently off to a good start, if what the humans said could be believed. After all, a fast acting uteran cancer always had been his favorite "starting" plague. Dylan wasn't doing as well as his brothers--yet--but famines were always the hardest to create, especially in a Land of Plenty. Oberon had no doubt that, in a week or less, crops would mysteriously start disappearing and cattle would go "mad".  
  
"Hello, lover," Oberon purred at Trowa, who cringed away. //No matter,// Oberon thought. //He's not the main course, anyway. *He* is.//  
  
Oberon sauntered over to Duo, and lay his hands on the chair. Under his grip, the chair shifted and changed, finally ending up as a soft white chair--a cushiony chair, with round arms, fit for the parlor of a nobleman. It was a deep green--the color of Earth--Danyer's favorite color. Oberon circled the chair until he was facing Duo.  
  
"Someone's got a secret, someone's got a secret, someone's got a secret, and I think it's *you*!" Oberon sang. He stood before Duo, the human recoiling from his presence. Oberon paid no mind to that and leaned in to whisper in Duo's ear. "Would you like to know a secret?"  
  
Duo shivered as hot air blew into his ear, but he said nothing. Unpeturbed by this, Oberon flicked his tongue out to lick the ear, pausing for a moment to suckle on the lobe.  
  
"I'm not queer," Duo stated, as Oberon continued his ministrations.  
  
Oberon laughed quietly at this. "If you're not gay, then why is Heero male?" Before Duo could think of the implications of the question, Oberon's mouth left his ear. "I think it's time for you to know your secret." Oberon moved his lips to Duo's, almost touching, but not quite. "Remember *everything*."  
  
That said, Oberon smashed his lips to Duo's. He kissed him, closed mouth, for a moment. Oberon stepped away from Duo--who was alive, but frozen in his seat, his mind on his memories--and waved to the others--also frozen in their seats, but because they were surprised and frightened.  
  
"Bye, boys, hope to see you again real soon." After saying that, Oberon left the room, leaving Duo to deal with his new discoveries.  
  
Selune 


	28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.

Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named 

Rating: R

Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), I should probably add angst, NICE RELENA Chapter 18, 3x1 lemon, but don't worry, it's just sex.

//blah// denotes thought

blah denotes memories

The Elements

Chapter 28

The men—or rather, one man and three boys—sat stock still in the wake of Death. Wufei was the first one to come out of the trance he'd been in and was thus the first one to notice that something was wrong with Duo. His mouth was moving, but Wufei couldn't make out what words—if any—he was saying.

Wufei edged closer to Duo and could barely hear him. He was repeating names, sort of like a mantra, and that worried Wufei. Duo wasn't the type for repetitious words—he found it stupid and inane—but there he was, repeating the same six names over and over. Holly. Heidi. Harrison. Hildegarde. Helena. Heero.

It frightened Wufei, what Duo was doing (though the only way he'd ever admit it was with a truth serum and lots of torture), so he decided to try to shake him out of it. Wufei reached out a trembling hand to Duo's shoulder. He meant to grab hold of his friend and shake like there was no tomorrow—and with these Riders loose, there might not be—but a strong hand grasped his wrist before he could.

"Don't," Rhys said, standing slightly behind and between Duo and Wufei's chairs. Wufei didn't know and didn't care how Rhys had gotten to this side of the bed so fast and without him knowing—what he cared about was Duo.

"What did he do to Duo?" Wufei asked, eyes begging Rhys to know the answer. "How can we get him back?"

"I—just don't touch him," Rhys said, letting go of Wufei's wrist. "It's dangerous now."

"But why?" Wufei asked.

"I—I think he's stuck in his memories."

Sounds of laughter. A long hall, empty of clutter. Flashing blue eyes.

"Come on!" someone—female—laughed, pulling on his hand. "You promised me a surprise, and by-gum it, you're going to give me a surprise before my parents get home!"

//Where am I?// Duo thought, allowing himself to be pulled along by the girl.

"You know your parents don't mind," Duo found himself saying in a language he knew wasn't English, but heard as such anyway. "It's mine that would skin us alive if they found us, Holly."

"That makes it all the more exciting, doesn't it, Diana?" the girl he himself had identified as Holly said. Surprised at being called Diana–which was not Diana, as Holly was not "Holly", but the closest approximation in English to whatever language they were speaking--Duo looked down at his chest to find breasts.

Quatre walked quickly to the Intensive Care Unit. He would have run, but this was a hospital, and he didn't want to disturb the other patients. Besides, this was probably some kind of joke Heero was pulling–he seemed like the type of guy to play cruel jokes. Relena probably just collasped from exhaustion; God knows she runs herself ragged with all of her activities.

Nevertheless, Quatre sped up his pace.

Duo was in a forest, a dense forest with heavy foliage, the air shimmering with the humidity. He wasn't sure, but he thought it might be a rainforest. He saw a girl kneeling beside a fallen tiger. At least, it looked like a tiger. But tigers didn't live in the rainforest, did they?

"What's going on?" Duo demanded, and the girl jumped. She turned around; there was blood on her hands, her shirt, her face, but Duo didn't notice any of that. He noticed her eyes–the piercingblue eyes that Holly had. That...somebody else had.

"You shouldn't have come," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "You shouldn't have followed me, David."

"I had to, Heidi," Duo said, though he wasn't the one making his mouth talk. "I had to know where you go when you leave. You leave every night."

Heidi lowered her eyes to the forest floor. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Quatre tensed when he saw who was in the waiting room. Milliardo. His parents. Six of his sisters. They were probably all that had made it so far–the other were most likely on their way. Milliardo raised his head, and there were tears coating his lashes, smushing them together. 

Cold fear ran through Quatre's veins.

Duo was lying in a field, naked. He was running his hands through the hair of the man lying beside him–also naked, and covered in love bites.

"Has anyone ever told you how devastatingly gorgeous you are, Harrison," Duo said, gazing into the eyes of his lover–Prussian blue, like Holly's, like Heidi's, like that other person Duo just couldn't think of.

"Yes, you brother–for one–told me just five minutes ago. And before that, your cousin Larry. And before that, your pet goat Fred," Harrison said, grinning even as he said the words.

"You bitch, that goat doesn't love you!" Duo exclaimed, then attacked his lover in the form of the Torture of a Thousand (and One) Tickles. Harrison laughed uncontrollably beneath him.

Quatre couldn't quite find the words to ask about Relena. Truth be told, he couldn't find the words to ask about the weather. Quatre was effectively struck dumb in the face of the grim countenances of his family.

Milliardo opened his mouth to speak. Quatre tried not to listen, tried to cover his ears with his hands, but he found that his arms were incapable of all but the smallest movements. He tried to protest, tried to make his brother–his horrible, awful, wonderful, caring brother–shut up, but he couldn't do anything.

"Relena, she's–"

Duo was outside, again, riding bareback on a horse. Beside him was a beautiful woman–with blue eyes, like Holly's, Heidi's, Harrison's, and that mysterious other person's–riding bareback on a horse of her own.

"–love the feel of riding without a saddle, don't you, David?" she was saying. Duo noticed that this time his companion was actually speaking English, with a British lilt. "It's so much easier on the animal–so freeing, so–"

"You're leaving, aren't you, Hildegarde?" Duo asked quietly. A wave of pain rushed through him as he said it, and one look in her eyes proved its' truth. 

"It's been almost a year, my love," she said. "We have to move on." Hildegarde maneuvered her horse over close enough to Duo that she could touch him. She cupped his cheek in her hand. "You could come with us, you know."

Duo looked away. "You know I can't. I have responsibilities, obligations..." he trailed off, then looked at her with pleading eyes. "Will I ever see you again?"

"If I have to search for you for a hundred lives in a thousand places, we will meet again," she said, before riding away from Duo.

//No, please, Milly, don't say it,// Quatre silently begged his brother. //Don't tell me that. Let me pretend she's okay, that she'll be okay. Just for a little while. Please!// But of course Milliardo didn't listen because Quatre didn't–couldn't–say anything.

"She's—she's dead, Quat," Milliardo said. After that, he kept talking, probably saying some useless shit that Quatre didn't care about—not then, at least. Maybe later he'd care. Right now, he was too busy collapsing to the floor, trying not to wail like a banshee.

There was blood everywhere. Duo kneeled beside the girl with the blue, blue eyes—like the four before her, and one other—and tried to stop the bleeding.

"It's going to be okay, Helena," Duo said. "The doctor's on his way."

Helena looked up at him—in her place among the grass as he tried to staunch the flow of blood from the bullet wound, the one he'd given her—and smiled. "I don't blame you, my Danyer," she said. "It was an accident."

And it had been an accident. She hadn't known he'd gone hunting, he hadn't known she'd taken a walk in the woods. But it didn't matter if it was an accident or not—his wife was dying, and it was his fault.

"I love you," she said and coughed. Blood came up—he must've hit a lung. "There's something I need to tell—"

"Shh," Duo chastised her and put a finger over her lips to keep her quiet. "The doc'll be her soon, and he'll fix you up good. This time tomorrow you'll be in bed recuperating. You can tell me whatever you need to then."

"No," she said. Helena grabbed his hand, the one he'd been pressing over her wound. Her grip was surprisingly strong for a woman who'd just been shot. "No, this can't wait—I'm not going to make it. It's been too long; I'm too old." She looked away, and Duo was enraged, and confused. Too old? She was only twenty-two, for fuck's sake!

"Danyer, I've told you before, and I'll tell you again," she said, and this time Duo didn't try to make her conserve her strength. "I love you. I have loved you for five lifetimes, and I will love you for five hundred more. I will go to the end of the earth—to the moon!--to find you. I will protect you with all that I am. You are my life, my love, my soulmate."

With that, Helena's hand went slack in Duo's, and the light fled from her eyes. She was dead.

She was dead. Quatre had known that when he saw his family's faces, but to hear it was earth-shattering. Quatre didn't know what Milliardo said to him after he fell. He didn't feel the cold of the tile or the warmth of his brother as he hugged Quatre. Quatre knew one thing and one thing only.

Relena was dead, and it was all Heero's fault.

Duo was again in a forest, but it was different this time. He didn't know how, but it was newer this time. He was surrounded by boys; they were bigger than him. He didn't know how many there were—three, five, ten, seventy-five, it didn't matter, they were all the same—and they were pushing him, kicking him. He could taste blood in his mouth.

Aah, Duo knew where he was. He was at camp, one of the many his mother made him go to during the summer, so that she didn't have to look at him. This was one of his memories.

"You're queer, ain'tcha," one of the boys—one of the giants—taunted. "Cuz only a faggot boy'd have hair that long."

He—or one of the others—pushed Duo down, his lank, greasy hair in his face. After weeks of camp, weeks of being taunted and bullied at various camps, Duo had stopped showering, hoping his stench would drive away others so that he could be alone (it was that summer that made him as adamant about personal hygiene as he was about hygienic surroundings). No such luck though—teenage boys didn't care about hygiene.

Duo was about to push himself up when a little boy—a kid with sparkling blue eyes—stood between him and the lumbering oafs who had thrown him down.

"Leave him alone!" Blue Eyes screamed, and Duo heard no more.

Quatre finally noticed something when he felt himself be lifted from the floor. "What's happening?" Quatre cried out, clutching at Milliardo.

"We have to go," his brother answered. "They need the space."

Quatre looked around the waiting room and saw that the space really was needed. Whereas before he had only seen his family—probably blocked out everybody else—the waiting room was now full to bursting. People were actually spilling out into the hall.

Quatre took a deep breath and nodded at Milliardo. "I can walk," he said, and Milliardo put him down. As Quatre walked from the room, he thought, //It has begun.//

Duo was in a very familiar place—his dormroom—in a very unfamiliar postition—looking through the people to the bathroom, cock in hand. He knew what was coming next and tried to stop himself. He couldn't.

Duo felt himself stand up, shove his spent dick in his pants and walk into the bathroom. He felt his dick reawaken at the sight of a soap-covered Heero.

He grabbed Heero from the stall and shoved him down to the floor. Heero fell and hit his head on the toilet.

//That brown stuff I cleaned up was dried blood.//

Heero was whimpering, but he didn't stop. He wanted Heero to pay, he just wanted Heero. Heero begged, blue eyes flashing.

//Like Holly's, Heidi's, Harrison's, Hildegarde's, Helena's. Like his Blue Eyed Savior.//

And Duo barely stopped. Barely stopped himself from taking what he wanted. Duo got off Heero and stumbled out of the bathroom, leaving his roommate cowering by the toilet. Some time later, Duo heard a whispered "Forget", felt a soft kiss, and saw scared blue eyes.

Duo jerked out of the memory. He looked into the eyes—none of them blue, thank God—of his two friends and the stranger.

"Oh. My. God," Duo said.

Selune


	29. Chapter 29

Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out. I've been so busy and stressed out these last few weeks that I didn't have any time to write. Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to Fuji Fox, for giving me all of my reviews for Peace Children at ff.net. Thanks!  
  
Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA  
  
//blah// denotes thought  
  
The Elements Chapter 29  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"How do you know those names?"  
  
"Duo, what happened?"  
  
"How do you know those names?"  
  
Duo heard the questions voiced by his friends—and Rhys—and dismissed them. What he couldn't dismiss was when Rhys grabbed his shouders and shook him, repeating his question for a third time.  
  
"How do you know those names?"  
  
"I—They were in my head," Duo said, trying to get Rhys off him. Rhys looked at him with contempt, and Duo was sure he spit out something like 'A human!' "They were in my head! And I loved them! You tell me what that means!"  
  
"No," Rhys said, backing up, allowing Duo to rise from the chair. "It's not possible. You are not to him what I am to Rafe! The Goddess would not make it so a human could have that kind of hold over someone so powerful. No. Not possible."  
  
Duo advanced on Rhys, backing him into a corner. "What do you mean by that?" Duo spat. "What power do I have over Death, and how can I use it to our mutual advantage?"  
  
"Over Death?" Rhys laughed, his eyes watering madly. "None. You have nothing over him. But over Heero? You have power over his heart. You command his love."  
  
Bel looked up and admired the crisp, cool water falling from the cliffside. It had taken him all day, but, finally, he had made it. Mustering up all his courage–he was about to step into the lion's den–Bel closed his eyes and touched the water fall, feeling around for the door. Grasping the handle, he whispered the password. With a swish and a flick and an unimpressive light show, Bel stepped into the portal and vanished from sight–to the other side of the world, where his "parents" lay in waiting.  
  
Duo stared increduously at Rhys. Obviously, the stress of the impending Armageddon had cause the fairy-elf-Sidhe-whatever to lose his mind. "Are you crackers?" Duo asked, in all sincerity. "When I was out of it, did you fall and hit your head? No? Then, I ask you this, why the hell do you think I have any power over Helena? What am I, then? His soul mate? His One-True-Love?"  
  
Rhys quirked an eyebrow at Duo, causing him to fumble in his tirade.  
  
"What?" he demanded, turning around to face Wufei and Trowa. "What is it?"  
  
"Duo," Trowa said slowly, lifting himself up from the bed, "you just called Heero 'Helena.'"  
  
Bel stepped out fo the portal into the foyer of King Legarian and Queen Ayiana's palace. A servant bowed before him–properly, like a servant was supposed to–if he was surprised to see Bel there, he didn't show it. Bel motioned for the servant to rise–one of the King's, Bel noted with disdain, if the small stature and pointed features were any indication–and he did.  
  
"My Lord Prince Leif," Pargan stated. "I was not aware you would be coming, or I would have had a suitable entourage waiting to welcome you."  
  
"No need, Pargan," Bel said, assuming the stance of a prince who had every right to be there. "I was merely in the neighborhood, as they say, and I decided to drop in." Bel took off his jacket (A fine leather garment he had appropriated from the body of one of Leif's classmates. Rioting in the streets and such, simply dreadful), and handed it to the old man. "Yes, indeed," Pargan agreed, folding the jacket and placing over the back of a nearby chair, to be taken care of later. " And will my Lord Prince Leif be staying the night? I can have your chambers ready within the hour."  
  
"No, no. That won't be necessary," Bel said, with mock joviality. "I just came to see my parents. Where are the King and Queen?"  
  
"They are in their parlor, my Lord Prince Leif," Pargan said, nodding in the direction of the Royal Wing. "Wait her, my Lord, and I will have Monique announce you."  
  
"I did not," Duo said He would absolutely, one hundred percent, under no circumstances believe that he had just called Hildegarde 'Helena.' And if he did, well, that was obviously just the result fo an over-tired, over- stresse, over-imaginative mind. After all, if he admitted that any of it would true, he would have to admit that–most likely–it all was.  
  
//And that's obviously not right,// Duo snorted. //Well, the camp thing might've happened–probably did, a couple a times, in fact–but the last thing... I would never hurt–try to hurt–somebody like that. In the words of Rhys, not possible.//  
  
"Yes, you did," Trowa insisted, climbing out of bed and stalking over to Duo. For a guy who'd just had the equivalent of a heart attack, whose ass cheeks were hanging out of his hospital gown, and whose stalk was really more of a hobble, Trowa was pretty intimidating. Duo tensed as Trowa drew near. "You called him Helena, and if that doesn't prove it, or at least give evidence for it, what will? Do you need him to break free of his bonds and perform a spontaneous choreographed dance number with fifty of his closest friends?"  
  
Duo breathed a sigh of relief. For a minute there, he'd actually thought that maybe Trowa knew the rest, about what he did to Heero. "Maybe it is true," Duo admitted, though he knew in his heart of hearts that there was no "maybe" about it. Heero's eyes, eyes that Duo hadn't even noticed he'd noticed, were too blue for it to be anything but the truth. "But, so what if it is?"  
  
"So what?" Trowa asked. "So what if you've found your soul mate, the love of your life, the–"  
  
"What difference does it make?" Duo cried out. "What difference does it make now, mere hours too late? What good does it do me to know that he was mine, in another life? What good does it do anyone for me to remember that he always smelled like lavender, sometimes mixed with vanilla or freshly cut grass? What is the purpose of me knowing what his body felt like, lying beneath mine in a field still wet with rain, when he was soft and curvy and his name was different, but his eyes–his eyes–remained the sam?. Always the same! Tell me, Trowa, what is the point of knowing this, when it's too late to do anything about it? When things have been done that can never be taken back." Duo collapsed into the waiting arms of his friend, who fell to the floor with him. Trowa patted his head and ran his fingers over top of Duo's hair, trying to sooth him.  
  
"Why did it take Death to show me what I should've known all along?" Duo whispered. "Why did It show me what I could've had–what I did have, long ago–moments after It took it away?"  
  
"To play, Duo. To play," Rhys said, before he, too, sunk to the floor.  
  
Bel finally was allowed into his "parents'" quarters after long agonizing minutes of tedious formalities in which he was meeted and greeted and announced and swooned over and told "it will just be a moment." He was looking forward to meeting the King and Queen. He had heard, well, almost nothing about them–only what he could pull from "My Lord Prince Leif's" mind, which wasn't much–but Bel always found it amusing to see an Elf and a Sidhe as a couple. The height difference made for some comedic moments, especially when the Elf was the male and the Sidhe the female.  
  
Bel was not disappointed in that respect when he saw the two rulers. Queen Ayiana was a typical Sidhe beauty, obviously where Oberon's host got his looks. Standing at over seven feet tall, the Queen was majestic, her coffee brown hair falling in ringlets down to the small of her back. Her olive skin sparkled, as if the sun was still trying to kiss her long after it retired for the night. Her eyes, the deepest blue of the hottest burning star, were full of mirth as she playfully swatted her husband, laughing at some joke he had told her. She quieted down when she noticed Bel had entered the room and motioned for her husband to do the same.  
  
With both "parents' quiet, Bel took the time to study King Legarian, the one from which his own host had acquired the majority of his appearance. Standing at an average–for an Elf, anyway–height of 4'11", Legarian looked postively ridiculous standing next to his wife. His hair was long and straight, blond tresses usually falling to his knees, but now pinned up as if he was a woman. His skin was not dark and not pale, but a perfect tan color with nary a freckle or blemish to mar it. His eyes were the color of darkest sable, expressive and warm. He had a strong chin, a noble chin, lacking the cleft that many thought a handsome feature, but fitting all the same.  
  
Bell smirked–to himself, so as not to destroy the illusion that he was their precious oldest son–as he eyed the King and Queen. They would be worthy adversaries, but even better toys. He schooled his expression into one of woe and opened his mouth to speak: "Mother, Father, I bring grave news."  
  
Selune 


	30. Chapter 30

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA  
  
blahdenotes thought  
  
Dedicated to Jeremy. Pink Fuzzy Bunnies rule. Get over it.  
  
The Elements Chapter 30  
  
Ayiana listened to her son with half an ear. There was something different about Leif, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe he was maturing? Was that it? Was he growing into his role as the future king of the Elves or Sidhe? Was that why he was here? No, if that was the reason for his visit, Eric would be with him. One to rule the Sidhe, one to rule the Elves. Or maybe to rule both, together. But that didn't equate with what Leif had said--"grave news." Maybe he was here to tell Ayiana and her beloved King that he was going to renounce his right to rule. Or maybe It had happened.  
  
Startled by that thought, Ayiana listened to her eldest son. Apparently, her musings had not caused her to miss much.  
  
"When it was just Rafe and Rhys, I was content to leave it alone," Leif was saying. "But now Heero's involved, and I don't want my little brother getting hurt. I'm sorry I didn't come to you sooner." Leif broke off and looked away from his parents, but Ayiana could see the tears spilling down his cheeks even as he raised a hand to shield their gaze.  
  
There was only one thing Ayiana could think of that would make her son that upset, only one thing that didn't involve the Riders. She risked a glance at Legarian to let him know that she'd be the one to ask. After all, she'd been the one to insist that, if the boys could only have one permanent guardian, that it be Rhys. He was by far the best of the Sidhe, and—as much as Ayiana loved her husband—only a Sidhe would do as a bodyguard. Ayiana hoped that she was wrong in her assumption. She didn't want to have to punish her favorite.  
  
"What exactly happened?" Ayiana asked Leif, silently begging him to tell her something other than what she thought. Tell me that there was an accident in pottery , and all three now have living statues of themselves running around the state of Pennsylvania. Tell me that Rhys has been letting Rafe do illegal, mind-altering drugs, and you recently found out he was letting Heero do the same. Tell me anything other than what I think. Please!  
  
Leif sighed and looked at his parents. Legarian wrapped his hand around Ayiana's.  
  
"Rafe and Rhys have a...romantic relationship," Leif said. Ayiana felt her face fall and knew Legarian's did the same. Before either of them could say anything, Leif continued. "I know it's wrong—consorting among the es, especially royalty and warriors—but they seemed so in love. You never saw them together, but they were so doting on each other. I could see the love they had for each other. I could almost touch it, it was so tangible.  
  
"But today—oh, God!--today, I went to visit Heero, and-and--" Leif cut off abruptly, turning his back on his parents. He got himself under control and began speaking again in a much more controlled manner. "Hid door was unlocked, so I went inside his room. It was empty, or at least, I thought it was empty. I heard noises coming from the bathroom. Heero was moaning; that right there should have tipped me off. But me, being the naïve person I am, I thought he might be hurt, so I burst in. He wasn't hurt, though he would've been if Rafe had opened the door instead of me. Thankfully, he was in our dorm room with Eric."  
  
Ayiana didn't have to ask what Rhys and Heero were doing, but she needed to know one thing. "Was it rape?" She honestly didn't know what she wanted the answer to be. One look at Leif, who whirled to face her, confirmed that he hadn't even thought of that, and she rejoiced that her son hadn't had to go through something like that, and she was saddened that he would willingly participate in it.  
  
"No, at least, I don't think so. Heero seemed to be enjoying himself." That was definitely like Heero. Ayiana couldn't count the number of times her youngest had gotten into trouble over the years because of his he would kiss first and think never. "I only wish that I'd told Heero about Rafe and Rhys when I first found out. Then, maybe, this could have been avoided."  
  
"Avoided?" Legarian asked, leaving Ayiana's side and stalking over to Leif. "This could have been avoided if you had come to us when you first became aware of Rafe and Rhys' relationship. How long has this been going on?"  
  
Leif looked at Ayiana for help, but she would offer none. She was too disappointed—in Rhys, for fucking two of her sons; in Rafe and Heero, for having sex with a lower; in Leif, for knowing and not doing anything about it; and in herself, for not knowing and not preventing it—to really do more than stare at the impending argument.  
  
"Tell me, Leif, how long you have known of this perverted abomination!" Legarian demanded. He looked truly ridiculous glaring up at his son, or he would have, had his glare not been as fierce. "How long have you covered for that-that pedophile!"  
  
Leif averted his eyes from his father, again. If Ayiana didn't know better, she'd think that he was trying to hide something. But she hadn't known he was hiding this, either, so maybe she didn't know better.  
  
"I found out when we were thirteen," Leif said, sounding ashamed. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner."  
  
"He'll have to be punished," Legarian said, stalking away from Leif. "For daring to touch either of my sons, I will discipline Rhys."  
  
"You will punish Rhys?" Ayiana asked, indignant. "You won't be punishing anybody, unless you choose to discipline Heero or Rafe, which I highly doubt. The two of them could ice-skate through the corridors, naked, with a horde of lower- men on their backs, fucking them, and you wouldn't do a damn thing to punish your pwecious wittle babies. No. I will punish Rhys as I see fit, and you'll not do a damn thing about it."  
  
"As you see fit?" Legarian questioned. "I think we all know what that means. By the end of tomorrow, I think you'll have Rhys on his back, "punishing" him." He affected a high-pitched voice. "Oh-oh! Rhys, you naughty, naughty boy. You take your punishment like a Sidhe. Oh, right there! Let your queen ride her favorite!"  
  
"How dare you!" Ayiana crossed the room and smacked Legarian. "I have never cheated on you, though the Goddess knows I should have. You're just trying to throw suspicion off yourself. If you do get up the courage—and I do mean "get up"--to "punish" Heero for being a bad, bad boy, the servants will be able to hear your grunts of pleasure for a whole three minutes down in their wing, you incestuous, pedophiliac, little coward. Though, it will give Heero a chance to get in a nap—he's obviously not getting much sleep in his new school."  
  
"I would never--"  
  
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," Ayiana said.  
  
"Ah, oh, ugh!" Legarian sputtered. He reached around his neck and yanked off the necklace symbolizing their union. "This is the last time you insult me. This is war!" Legarian stalked out of the room.  
  
Ayiana rolled her eyes, pulling off her own necklace and throwing it to the floor. Really! Elves were such drama queens! She strolled out, barely noticing that Leif was still there.  
  
Bel smiled to himself. That had been almost too easy. He hummed to himself as he imagined Oberon's reaction to this. They were that much closer to getting this beautiful place as their own, without any pesky faeries.  
  
Rhys could definitely sympathize with Duo. Way back when , when he'd realized that he was Rafe's soul mate (she'd been Rosmerta then, and a pixie) he'd taken it hard. And he had been in love with her. From what he'd heard, Duo didn't even particularly like Heero, much less love him. To find out that he had, not just liked, but been in love with someone he could barely stand must have been very difficult.  
  
Duo shook his head, as if emphasizing Rhys' thoughts. "It makes no difference," he stated, "and I won't—I can't—pretend that it does."  
  
Duo turned—presumably to leave--and walked away from the others in the room. Before he reached the door, however, he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Rhys rushed over to his prone form, and felt for a pulse. It was there, but rapid. What the had that stupid son of a bitch done to him?  
  
Selune 


	31. Chapter 31

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
This chapter dedicated to my ever wonderful Figment.  
  
The Elements Chapter 31  
  
December 24th  
  
Several months passed, the Riders grew more and more in power as time went by. All of Quatre's sisters died and his mother. His brother was hanging onto his sanity with a string and duct tape, and his father had just been diagnosed with cancer. It wasn't even bad cancer–just a skin cancer, which could be easily removed–but with the current state of the world–tens fo millions died every day from hunger, disease, and war–there weren't enough resources to cure him. All doctors, all extra food, all everything went to the war fund, to the military.  
  
Quatre snapped after Milliardo told him about his father. He couldn't help but think, if–if only!–the cancer had been found in July, in August, in November, even, when the war had just been heating up, maybe his father would've been saved. Instead, he would just be another casualty of war, just another statistic.  
  
Quatre always hated statistics; he'd always been bad at it in school, when there had still been school. Of course, there wasn't any school anymore. The war (World War III, they called it, between every country in the world. Canada, surprisingly, was currently winning–they had no allies. Nobody did.) Took precedence over everything, not to mention the fact that so many people had died, there weren't enough teachers to teach. Quatre decided he'd become a statistic, even though he hated them.  
  
Quatre hated everything these days. He hated Death. He hated War. He hated Famine. He hated Plague. He hated trees. He hated grass. He hated this stupid boarding school he was forced to stay at. He hated how close the others were, barricaded in the building. He hated the stench of death that permeated everything he touched, tasted, saw, was. He hated that they were running low on food supplies. He hated that soon one of them–probably Milly, him being the oldest, strongest, healthy person in the Hall–would have to go out and get more supplies, even if it was only into the forest surrounding the campus. He hated how the only thing ever on T.V. was the War. He hated that there even was T.V. anymore, that everybody else hadn't already given up, like the rest in the Hall. He hated how, every day, Trowa sank lower and lower into depression, as the remaining magic in his body drained away, and he finally fully felt the loss of his tree. Quatre hated how Duo would come out of his memories and be so happy, only to weep himself to sleep as more current and immediate concerns came flooding back. Quatre hated how Rhys would lock himself and Duo in Duo's room afterwards and console him, when it should have been one of Duo's friends doing that. When it shouldn't even have had to be done. Quatre hated how he was never going to hear his sisters' laughter again, how he was never going to make love beneath the moonlight, having to watch out for irate older brothers/R.A.s, and how he was never going to grow up to be a loving husband to his one and only. He was never going to become a politician so he could fight for the right to call himself husband. He was never going to do any of that because, Quatre decided, there were worse things than being a statistic.  
  
And that was why Quatre tied the rope to the ceiling of his and Trowa's room. That was why he stood on the chair and wrapped the noose around his neck. That was why and jumped as he kicked the chair away.  
  
There were worse things than being a statistic. And one, one of those things was being a slave.  
  
Duo stumbled as he came out of his–as he called them–Memory. Or rather, he would have, had Rhys not been there, holding his elbow as he jerked awake. Rhys, who was quickly becoming Duo's best friend and closest confidant, shared many of the same experiences Duo himself was now having. Being the soulmate of an Element himself–Rafe, he of the Air–Rhys helped Duo overcome many of his trials and tribulations–many self-inflicted–as he endured the curse Death put on him the night the Riders came back. Rhys even told Duo–after much cursing and stomping around–what Death had meant when he'd said "Remember everything."  
  
It meant exactly what it sounded like. Duo was to remember everything that had ever happened to him in all of his lives, even the ones without Heero. Rhys said that, among faeries, the Spell of Absolute Remembrance was not a curse, but a gift. It allowed a faery to remember everything about himself all at once, so he could learn from his past mistakes and grow from them in his current life.  
  
This was not so for humans. The human body could not handle the rush of information, and thus it withheld most of it, letting the Memories trickle out over time, instead of all at once. They came at random times, usually three or four in a row, and then would stop for a few hours to let Duo's body play "catch up." It was driving Duo slowly–but surely–insane.  
  
At first, his Memories were mainly of Heero: his sweet smile, his deep belly-laugh when he was truly amused, his blue eyes, unchanging through the ages. Duo saw any and everything he though he could about Heero. Then, he would see more. It was bittersweet agony for Duo–who not only saw the Memories, but relived them heart, body, and soul–to see, touch, feel, smell Heero–his Heero, no matter the body–and know that this time around, he would never have the real thing. To know that, unless Heero fought and won, they might never be together again. To know that Heero might not even want him, after the way Duo had treated him for those few short days.  
  
One time, in one of his Memories, Heero told Duo about Duo's creation. It was one of Duo's favorites.  
  
They were lounging on a rose petal and were, for once, the same species–sprites. Duo was lying back, and Heero was propped up on one elbow, brushing Duo's hair–even then, it was long–out of his face. Heero was singing a song that Duo now, tentatively, called Heero's Song–he knew it was originally called something else, but he didn't know what. The song had popped up in several of Duo's other Memories; Heero usually sang it to Duo, but Duo occasionally was the one to sing it. Rarely, they'd sing it together.  
  
Heero stilled his hands on Duo's face and stared at him, his lips slightly pared and a glow staining his face. He cupped Duo's cheek and asked him a question. At first, Duo didn't hear the question, too busy gazing at the heavenly creature above him to register his words. When Heero repeated his question, again, Duo answered.  
  
"Everyday," he said. "Every day you prove to me how much you love me, and every day you leave me speechless with the depth of your feelings."  
  
It was then that it dawned on Duo that his beloved had thought of a new way to show Duo his love. Duo smiled slightly, waiting for Heero to finish his little ritual, as he always said everything in the exact same way before telling Duo something new. This time, Heero surprised Duo. He broke tradition. Duo liked it. Woof.  
  
"Would you like to know of your birth? Of the birth of your soul?" Heero asked, pulling Duo up to stand, to twirl, to dance on the rose petal. Heero's eyes were practically sparkling as he held Duo's hands in his, joy seeping from his pores. "I have been given special permission by my sister, Spirit, to tell you of your beginnings, on this, our anniversary."  
  
Duo, of course, knew what his lover was and what his lover's family was, but he rarely came out and said it. Duo flinched at the reminder of their power but was strangely curious. He didn't keep up with dates much, but he knew that it wasn't yet their anniversary. Also, how many beings ever got to know the circumstances of their creation? Duo nodded his head.  
  
Heero leapt with joy and sat down, quickly motioning for Duo to do the same. He grabbed Duo's hand and lowered his voice conspiratorially.  
  
"Once upon a time," he began, leaning close to Duo, "thee was a very lonely girl. This girl was not alone–oh, no!–she had two sisters and two brothers. But she was very lonely. And sad. And overworked. It seemed to her that everyone but herself who wanted a mate had one. Her oldest brother and sister had each other, not needing to look outside the family to find the one with which their souls were intertwined. Her other brother had recently found his mate, and her younger sister loved to much to fall in love with one person.  
  
"So, there she was, love all around her, and she had a job to do. A very important job. She was always moving around–she and her siblings–on account of their destiny, and she was never able to settle down to find a love of her own. Her three older siblings–and sibling-in-law–never caught on to how sad and distraught the girl was. For, you see, it was winter, and the girl was always a little sad in winter, because that was the time when the earth rested. Her youngest sister, however, noticed her plight and set out to make it right.  
  
"One night, the sister–Spirit, in name, body, and soul–cut the girl, just a little bit, and captured the blood in a bowl. With the blood, the sister took a bit of the girl's soul. As a soul is an infinite thing, able to adjust to be any shape or size, the girl did not notice. Her soul swelled to fill in the missing spot, and the girl was never the wiser.  
  
"With the blood and soul the sister collected, she also took a bit of the girl's magic. She grew a body with the magic of the girl, gave it life with the blood of the girl, and gave it a soul with the soul of the girl. For one year and one day, the sister worked on the body–the boy–toiling at all hours of the day and night as his mind, body, and spirit matured. At the end of the term, the sister presented her creation to the girl–as she had, two years previous, presented her brother with his mate–their, now two very different and distinct, souls intertwining in a way meant only for soulmates."  
  
Heero stopped his story and looked at his love. "That was 5,000 years ago, tonight, my love. Happy Anniversary."  
  
Duo smiled as he thought of that Memory. It really was one of his favorites. So flawed. So right. So perfect. So Heero.  
  
Selune 


	32. Chapter 32

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Chapter 18, 3x1 lemon, but don't worry, it's just sex. Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 32  
  
Trowa stepped out of the shower, humming. He was in a rare good mood–he was clean and he was about to tell Quatre how much he loved him. After all, who knew what tomorrow would bring, if they'd even make it there alive? Besides Quatre needed to know he was loved, what with his mother's and sisters' deaths, and his father's sickness–not to mention Rhys' in- depth details on what happened last time the Riders came to town; really, nobody needed to know that they enslaved the "winners" of the wars they caused. Everybody in their little sanctuary could use a little lovin' now.  
  
Some of the guys-they were all guys, all of the girls in the vicinity having fallen to the Fertility Plague–were desperately in need of love. Many of their families were dead or dying or gone or fighting or doing something that prevented them from being here with them.  
  
Trowa's own family was just outside these walls, but the couldn't go to them. They couldn't risk unbarring the doors for anything less than life or death. But even if he could, he honestly couldn't say if he would. Trowa wasn't a nymph anymore; he wasn't even a human. He was half of a-a being propelled on by some magic he had no control over. By some magic that faded as time passed, making him weak, making him die. That was why he had to tell Quatre how he felt as soon as possible. He couldn't die without letting Quatre know how important he was.  
  
So, Trowa was happy. He was dying; he knew it. He had lost his tree; he felt its absence with every beat of his slowing heart. He was also in love; he'd seen the looks Quatre used to throw his way and knew that he loved Trowa, too.  
  
Trowa finished drying off and dressed. Trowa had a ritual before he did anything big–like telling someone he loved him–he would always take a shower beforehand–to start anew–and then he'd pray to his tree. Of course, this time, he couldn't pray to his tree, so he'd pray to Mother Earth instead. Trowa sunk to his knees, hair dripping wet in his eyes, and made the sign of the Earth in front of himself.  
  
"Oh, Mother of Earth," Trowa said, "bless me in my venture. Bless my love and let it be returned upon me three-fold. Let em love my love as he deserves, and let him love me as he so needs to love someone. Let my love comfort him, even if you do not see fit to have him return that love. In your name, I pray. So mote it be."  
  
Trowa made the sign of the Earth again and rose. With a determined grin on his face, he set off for his dorm room.  
  
Mother–or rather, Father–Earth, of course, did not hear Trowa's pleas. Even if he had, there was not much Heero could have done. Heero was thousands of miles from Trowa, locked in a chair in his own head, watching Death–Oberon, isn't it ironic?–berate one of his slaves.  
  
The Elf cowered below Oberon's gaze, and he saw the way he begged for his life. Not for the first time, Heero was glad that he couldn't hear what was said outside of the Black Room.  
  
Heero forced himself to watch as Oberon had the boy beaten–after al, it was his fault the unnamed Elf was a slave in the first place–not noticing that he hummed a special song to comfort himself.  
  
Oberon was royally pissed. The Elf that Dylan had brought him looked nothing like Her. Nothing! He didn't dance like Her, didn't move like Her, didn't touch like Her. He was nothing like Her!  
  
"Do you not like my present, Obie?" Dylan–oh, so mighty Famine–asked. He was hunkering down on the floor while Oberon was standing on the dais in the throne room, so he had to tilt his head up to look Death in the eyes.  
  
"Do I not like him? Do I not like him?" Oberon mocked scornfully. "No! I do not like my present! He is not anything like what I wanted! He is supposed to have long, flowing red hair. He is supposed to have emerald green eyes that change color with his mood. He is supposed to be as graceful as a cat and as sensual as a mermaid. He is supposed to be a she. Now, go, brother, and bring me back someone suitable. Oh, and don't call me Obie."  
  
"Yes, Oberon," Dylan said, nodding. He stood to leave, presumably to go out among the remaining Elves to find one fitting his brother's description. It was really too bad that the Sidhe had been annihilated in the Sidhe-Elf War; it would have been much easier to find someone of that nature in their ranks. As it was, Dylan would have his work cut out for him this week.  
  
Oberon didn't care what his brother had to do, though, so long as he got what he wanted. And what he wanted, needed, craved was the girl who'd gotten them into this mess in the first place, the girl who'd started it all. And if he couldn't have Her, he'd have someone just like her.  
  
Of course, he still had needs until then. Oberon motioned for the Elf boy cowering on the floor. "Come here, child. Death wants to play with you."  
  
Trowa stood in front of his door and tried to smooth down his hair. It didn't work much, although it did more than it would've if his hair had been dry. He put a smile on his face and opened the door.  
  
Then he screamed.  
  
Duo and Rhys heard Trowa's scream at the same time and ran toward his room. Others were already there by the time they reached the door, and Duo asked one of them–Lattie, his name was; he'd been a freshman when school was in session–what was going on.  
  
"I don't know," Lattie said, "but Milliardo and Wufei both rushed in, and only Wufei came out. He was headed down that way, to the adults' rooms."  
  
After hearing that, Duo pushed his way to the front of the crowd, not caring if Rhys followed him or if he hurt anyone. Duo pushed the door open and gasped at what he saw. Trowa was holding Quatre in his arms; his arms were around Quatre's chest, just under the armpits. They were on the floor, right beside an overturned chair. There was a cut rope hanging from the ceiling, and what looked like the rest of it was tossed near the chair. Quatre's eyes were glazed and unfocused. As far as Duo could tell, he wasting breathing. Milliardo was sitting near them, wringing his hands in his shirt. He was crying.  
  
The last time Duo saw Milliardo cry was when his mother died.  
  
Duo switched his gaze from Milliardo to Trowa. "Is he...?" Duo managed to say, before he choked on a sob.  
  
"Dead?" Trowa said. "Yeah, he's dead." Trowa squeezed his eyes shut for a moment before opening them again. He kissed his fingers and put them on Quatre's lips–still warm, by the look. He leaned down to whisper something to Quatre that Duo barely heard. "I love you," he said. "I was coming to tell you that." Then, he gently closed Quatre's eyes.  
  
With that, Duo knew it only a matter of time before they lost Trowa, too. And then everything went black.  
  
Selune 


	33. Chapter 33

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 33  
  
Little Duo stepped off of the buss, his monitor's hand in his own. He skipped up the sidewalk to his house, swinging his arms, and thus Kelly's. Had Duo been any older, and had it not been such a special day, he probably would've noticed that the teenager was getting quite fed up with him. But, as it was, Duo was too excited about the adventure before him–his daddy was going to take him to the zoo.  
  
"Duo, quit it!" Kelly screeched after one really enthusiastic tug. She looked around the yard and smiled. "Look, Duo, you're Daddy's home, and you're door's open. You can make it the rest of the way from here, can'tcha?" She pointed to Duo's Daddy's car–the vroom-vroom-screech car that Daddy loved–and let go of his hand.  
  
"Yeah, I'll be okay," Duo said, puffing out his chest. Not only was he getting to go to the zoo, but Kelly was letting him go in the house by himself.  
  
Kelly nodded and went back to the bus. The bus took off, and Duo walked in his house.  
  
The house smelled bad. Duo noticed that as soon as he walked through the door–squeak, it went as he opened it. It smelled a bit like this bird had one time. The bird had been lying on its back, feathers all messed up, with flies buzz,buzz, buzzing around it. There had also been some red stuff on the bird. Mommy told him it was ketchup, but he didn't believe it. Ketchup tasted good, and the red stuff tasted kind of like pennies. Mommy also told him that the bird was sleeping, but he didn't believe that either. Sleeping birdies woke up when you kicked them, and that one hadn't.  
  
"Daddy!" Duo called out, walking through the smelly house to the kitchen. It was dark in there. That wasn't right. If Daddy was home–and he was, his car was right outside–why did he have all of the lights off? Daddy loved the light. It was his favorite thing, next to Duo.  
  
"Daddy?" Duo called again. There was no answer, and Duo began to get worried. Where was Daddy? Why wasn't Daddy answering him? "  
  
Daddy!" Duo yelled, and he ran from the kitchen. He ran to his parents' bedroom. No Daddy. He ran to the bathroom. No Daddy. He ran to his own room, the laundry room, the den, the basement, the garage. Still no Daddy.  
  
Finally, Duo ran to the living room. It was at the back of the house and Daddy didn't like it much. To tell the truth, Duo didn't like it much either–it was too dark. The bad smell got worse as Duo got closer to the living room, and Duo had to cover his mouth with his hands to keep from throwing up.  
  
Duo turned on the lights and screamed. Daddy and Charlie–Daddy's bestest best friend ever–were in the middle of the room. They had that red stuff on them and something was in their mouths. Duo looked closer and saw that it was two pee-pees. Why did Daddy and Charlie have pee-pees in their mouths? Duo didn't know, but Mommy would.  
  
Mommy was sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. It was her chair because she was the only one who liked the living room. Mommy had the red stuff on her, too–in her hair, on her clothes, on her face–and she was smiling. That made Duo feel better. Nothing could be wrong if Mommy was happy. Right?  
  
"Duo," Mommy said, and she lifted her head to look Duo in the eye, "do you know what happens to bad little boys?"  
  
Of course, Duo knew what happened to bad little boys. The devil got them. He took them and he ate them and he crunched their bad little bones with his teeth. Duo told Mommy this, though he couldn't understand why she was asking him. She'd been the one to tell him, after all.  
  
"Yes, that's what happens," Mommy said, and she smiled bigger. "But do you know what happens to bad big boys?" Mommy paused, and when Duo didn't say anything, she continued. "God punishes bad big boys. He takes them and he splashes their blood all over the walls. And he reigns down justice on the bad big boys, and he punishes them for their sins." Mommy took Duo's hands in her own, getting the red stuff on him. "Your Daddy was a bad big boy, so God punished him."  
  
"Is Daddy asleep, like the bird?" Duo asked, glancing over at Daddy and Charlie. "Will he not wake up?"  
  
"No, baby, he's not going to wake up," Mommy said, standing up. "Daddy was a faggot, and God killed him. Now, excuse me, Duo, but Mommy needs to get cleaned up. Oh, and if anyone asks, I wasn't here when you got home." After saying that, Mommy left Do alone to wonder one thing. What was "killed"?  
  
Oberon stood up and kicked the body below him. So much for Elf stamina. That one didn't even last an hour. How was he supposed to gain pleasure if his concubines kept dying? There weren't enough Elves to continue doing this with them, and Oberon was afraid he was gin to have to take desperate measures.  
  
"Pargan!" he called for his ever-loyal servant.  
  
"Yes, m'Lord?" Pargan asked. Even with half of his face missing, even with most of his kind dead and the rest in slave's bonds, even in a slave's bond himself, Pargan managed to be succinct, polite, and efficient.  
  
"Gather my brothers," Oberon said. "Tomorrow, we capture the humans."  
  
Selune 


	34. Chapter 34

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 34  
  
It took twenty minutes to take the humans. The Riders demanded that all of the countries of the world concede defeat to them. One country–Canada, the one winning the War–refused. Death eliminated them in a matter of seconds. The remaining countries were much more agreeable after that.  
  
The Riders used the palace as their base of operations–Oberon really did need to properly thank Bel for procuring it–and sent their message out via satellite. After the humans admitted defeat, Oberon sent the message for all red-haired, lithe females to go to the center of the closest major city to them. They would be picked up by the Elves and put in slave's bonds within twenty-four hours. Of course, Oberon didn't really think that all of the women fitting that description would obey, so he was sending out the goblin army behind the Elves to capture any stragglers. The goblins would also have the task of putting the rest of the humans in bonds. Soon, they would all be under the Riders'–and thus Oberon's–control.  
  
"You know, that was a really stupid order," Gwydion said, flopping in an ornamental chair, startling Oberon out of his thoughts.  
  
"What was a stupid idea?" Oberon questioned his brother, raising an eyebrow at his cheek. Oberon was by far the strongest of the Riders–even before he entered the Dual Element–so the others usually treaded softly around him. Gwydion was the exception to this, not being intimidated by his more powerful brother. Gwydion was Oberon's favorite, so he let him get away with murder. Actually , he rewarded his brothers for murder, he let Gwydion get away with everything else.  
  
"Telling the humans to send their red-haired females to be collected," Gwydion said, as if it should've been so obvious what he meant. "My first plague wiped out most of the human women. Sure, there are some left–maybe a million or so–but, still, it's gonna be slim pickings."  
  
"Oh, why don't you go fuck an alter boy," Oberon said, sticking his tongue out at his brother. "If I can't find someone I wan tout of them, I'll just expand my search to include all the women, and then I'll die the one I want's hair red. And if I absolutely, one hundred percent cannot find her there, I'll move onto the guys. Ones with bodies like my host. And if I can't find her there, I'll move onto another species. But eventually, I will find her, or someone good enough to replace her"  
  
Gwydion stood and embraced his brother. "Give it up, Oberon," he said. He took Oberon's face in his hands. "She's dead, and she's never coming back. Quintessa's gone, brother. Forget about her."  
  
But Oberon couldn't forget. He could never forget, and this was his last chance to find her. This was his last chance to find her and make her his.  
  
"Kiss me," Oberon commanded, and they kissed. Later, they fucked. Oberon did not forget.  
  
It took twenty minutes to pry Quatre's corpse away from Trowa's arms. Trowa would not let go, and they did not want to pull too hard, lest they hurt Trowa or damage Quatre's body. In the end, it took eleven guys to part the two. Trowa just wouldn't let go, not even when Milliardo bit him. He only let go when Quatre's father came into the room and begged Trowa to let go.  
  
Trowa let go then, and then he cried. Trowa wept for his lost love. He wailed at eh loss of his world. He lamented over Fate's horrible sens of timing and begged the gods to answer him why–why–he could not have been there in time. He begged for answers to his questions. Why did Quatre have to die? Why couldn't Trowa save him? Why didn't he even know how far Quatre's depression had gone? Why, why, why could things not have been different?  
  
For three days and three nights, Trowa sat there in the spot he'd held his love, and he asked for answers. For three days and three nights, no answer was forthcoming. On the dawn of the fourth morning, Wufei came into the room to find Trowa dead, sitting up, with his arms out like he was holding something.  
  
They buried him in the basement, where the other dead had been buried, where Quatre was. Where Quatre's father would be when he finally up and died.  
  
The others mourned the loss of Quatre and Trowa. And then they moved on with their lives, as all humans do.  
  
Over the next few weeks, Duo recalled many Memories. There were some he tried to ignore–like he ignored the one of his mother killing his father–and there were others that he cherished and thought of late at night. The latter were usually ones where he and Heero–whatever forms they took–talked for hours over inconsequential things. There was one that Duo really didn't like to think about, but, like the image of a bear in a tutu riding a unicycle, once he did think of it, he really couldn't keep it out of his mind. It was the Memory where Heero told Duo about the creation of the Riders. Duo so disliked that Memory, that he'd rather think of his attack of Heero in this life. So that's what he usually did. Only, usually, somewhere along th line, it would morph into something much more erotic and decidedly consensual. Into a Memory that Duo decided he liked. Very much.  
  
Heero took Duo's hadn't and led him to the tree. They were outside, in the forest, without a soul in sight. In less you counted the animals, and Duo definitely did. One could never be too sure who was really an animal and who was a shape shifter in disguise.  
  
"C'mon, love," Heero said, tugging on Duo's arm. "Haven't you ever thought of what it'd be like to do it in a tree. Where's your sense of adventure?"  
  
"My sense of adventure has both of its feet planted firmly on the ground, and that's where I'm going to stay, thank you very much," Duo said. It wasn't fair of Heero to do this to him. Promise him a romantic tryst, away from the temple, ant then ask him to climb a tree to get to it. That was dangerous! He could fall, and then he'd get hurt, and then there'd be no more romantic trysts–in a tree or otherwise–for a long, long time.  
  
Duo relayed this sentiment to Heero, who responded by sticking his hands under Duo's student robe. Heero caressed his hands down Duo's hard chest, finally ghosting it over the head of Duo's naked cock. He stroked up and down for a few seconds before his hands left Duo completely. Duo opened the eyes he hadn't known he'd closed and found Heero shucking his own robes.  
  
"I don't know about you," Heero said, shedding the rest of his clothes to stand in full glorious nakedness, "but I'm going up that tree. And I'm going to have a romantic tryst with someone, even if it turns out to be myself."  
  
Heero tweaked Duo on the nose and turned to climb up the tree. Duo, of course, followed.  
  
Selune 


	35. Chapter 35

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 35  
  
Weeks passed and still Oberon could not find a being to match the splendor of Quintessa. In anger, he began sending inferior ones back to their families, in pieces. He was tired of looking for Quintessa. He wanted her, and he wanted her now. Oberon was in a rage and took it out on anyone who deigned to come near him, even his brothers, even Gwydion.  
  
It took Dylan--quiet, inconspicuous little Famine, who'd been doing a much better job than anyone gave him credit for, typical--to point out to Oberon a spell. An ancient spell meant to bring someone back to life. All it would take was the Blood of Earth. And the life blood of Earth's mate.  
  
Oberon made the preparations and left for America. He had a human to kidnap.  
  
Wufei was having a great dream when he was jerked awake. There was this beautiful boy--Wufei was inclined to believe it was Heero, though he really couldn't see the face--and he was riding Wufei. He responded to all of Wufei's touches and obeyed all of his commands. Which was ruined when Milliardo shook him awake.  
  
"Aah, Milly, why'd you have to go and do that?" Wufei whined to the man who was holding up remarkably well, all things considered. "It was just getting to the good part."  
  
Milliardo arched an eyebrow and tilted his head as if to say 'Are you daft, man? Do you have any idea what you were doing?' Wufei thought a minute and then answered the first unasked question. Yes, he was daft. What the hell was he doing, falling asleep during sentry duty? Wufei smacked himself on the forehead and swore, something he'd been doing a lot more recently. Wufei grabbed his knife--it was a butcher knife; after all, they were boarded up in a, well, boarding school, and there weren't that many weapons from which to choose--and stood up.  
  
"Sorry, Milliardo," he said, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He kicked himself--figuratively, this time--this was the third time this week he'd fallen asleep while on sentry duty. He might as well just open the front doors and ask all the looters and hoarders and killers to please come in and kill them all and take everything they had. Wufei was lucky that, since his brother's death, Milliardo didn't sleep much. Otherwise, he might've slept all through the night.  
  
Out of nowhere, there was a bang on the door. Wufei swore again; he'd thought that all the homeless beggars had given up trying to get into the school. They weren't letting anyone else in, no matter what. Wufei didn't care if it was the President, the Pope, or the incarnation of God himself, he and Milliardo were not opening that door. Wufei heard the bang again. He saw the wood splinter.  
  
Oh, shit. That was not good. Wufie glanced over at Milliardo and saw that he'd already sounded the alarm. Good man. The other guys came down from their rooms--in all stages of dress, ranging from fully clothed to pajamas to completely naked--just as the doors burst open.  
  
Wufei turned back in horror to see a hoard of beings--nymphs, maybe?--that looked a whole hell of a lot like Trowa. That scared Wufei, but what made him about shit his pants was the person in the middle of the hoard.  
  
There, in the center of the group, wearing the robes of a king, was Heero.  
  
Oberon surveyed the group of humans--mere boys, most of them--looking for one in particular. He wasn't there, but Oberon knew he was in this building, somewhere.  
  
"Kill them all, but leave Duo for me," Oberon commanded the nymphs. They would do as he'd commanded. Apparently, they'd felt the death of their brother Trowa some weeks before and blamed these humans. They had been aching for revenge ever since.  
  
Oberon walked up to one of the boys and grabbed him. He looked into his mind and saw where Duo was. The boy was sentimental; he still used the room that he'd shared with Heero. Oberon threw the human away--Wufei was his name--and climbed the stairs to the junior floor.  
  
The floor was empty, except for some snoring coming from the old peoples' rooms--Wufei had been very thorough in his memories--and for that, Oberon was glad. Not that he would have minded too terribly much if there had been a couple of humans to kill, but really, they would have been more trouble than they were worth. Oberon crept down the hall, lest he wake Duo too soon.  
  
Oberon opened the door and looked into the familiar room. It was exactly like he remembered, but for one difference. Actually, two differences. One, Duo's bed clothes were ruffled, but there was no one in it. Two, Duo was sleeping in the bed that had been Heero's. Oberon checked the rest of the room to make sure no one was there creeping in the shadows, ready to pounce on him. Oberon tutted when he found no one. Really, these boys were very stupid, leaving a defenseless comrade asleep like this. Oh, well, there wasn't much they would have been able to do, anyway, and it made Duo easier for the taking.  
  
Oberon leaned over Duo's sleeping form and grabbed his head, kissing him sloppily, messily. Duo's eyes fluttered open, and he smiled.  
  
"Heero," Duo said, reaching up to pull Oberon down to him.  
  
"Uh, uh. Guess again," Oberon said, wrenching from Duo's grasp.  
  
Understanding dawned in Duo's eyes, and he sat up. "Who are you? What are you doing here? What have you done to my friends?" Duo demanded, quite funnily in Oberon's opinion. Duo's face scrunched up like a little kid's when he got all high and mighty.  
  
"Why, Duo, I am hurt," Oberon said. "I thought for sure you'd remember me. After all, aren't I the one who gave you your precious memories back. I'm Death, but you may call me Oberon. As for what I'm doing here, I came to get you, silly boy. And I have done not one thing to your friends, though I can't vouch for what the nymphs have done to them. I never thought nymphs could get so vicious, but I guess family is that important to them. Either that or this is really the only time they get to let their evil side out. It always is the quiet ones, I suppose."  
  
Duo lunged at Oberon, hands out as if to strangle him.  
  
Oberon laughed. "My dear, dear boy, you can't kill me. Only your dreamlover can do that, and he obviously isn't going to. Now, along, we must be going."  
  
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Duo growled, and there came that cute little face again.  
  
"Yes, you are," Oberon insisted, grabbing Duo's wrist and grinding the bones together. "If you won't come willingly, I can make you. And believe me, it won't be pleasant. I am both Earth and Spirit, after all; I can control your body and your mind, if I so choose."  
  
Duo resisted again, and Oberon sighed. He didn't want to do this--it was such a waste of breath, really--but the human left him with no other choice. Oberon muttered the incantation, and Duo went rigid.  
  
"Stand up," he commanded, and Duo did. "Follow me."  
  
Selune 


	36. Chapter 36

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 36  
  
When Oberon arrived back at the castle, he was pleased to find that his brothers had been busy. The throne room was prepared for the upcoming spell, complete with an almost full circle made of blood--the human's blood would be used to finish it--an ornamental bathtub, and an alter. All of the other utensils Oberon would need were also there. Satisfied that all of his immediate needs were fulfilled, Oberon dismissed the slaves who were putting out the "finishing touches." Death was alone with the human.  
  
"Strip," he commanded and watched as the human did so. His host's mate had a fantastic body, and had Oberon not had a use in mind for it, he would not have minded taking it for a ride. But when he got his Quintessa back, he would have no need for others.  
  
"Climb into the tub and clean yourself," Oberon said. The spell called for cleanliness, a soiled body made for soiled blood, and the blood needed to be pure--free of any impurities. "You don't take drugs, do you?"  
  
The human shook his head in the negative, and Oberon allowed him to continue undressing himself. Oberon took off his clothes and entered the bath after the human--for this rite, his blood would also be needed. His blood and the blood of his host with the blood of his mate and the blood of his host's mate. The four together would result in two. He in his host and his mate in his host's mate. Heero and the human would be forgotten and Oberon would finally have his Quintessa back.  
  
Oberon fantasized what it would be like to have Quintessa back with him. This time, she would love him. There would be none of that "I love you as I love all of the All's creatures." She would love him and only him because she would know how much he went through to get her back. She would realize his love for her and know that he was the only one who loved her that much. Nobody--not even her piddling brothers--love Quintessa as much as he did.  
  
As Oberon thought of his wonderful mate, he barely heard the low humming coming from somewhere nearby.  
  
In the Black Room, headphones dropped down beside Heero's chair. Confused-- this had never happened before--he put them on.  
  
Duo's mind and body slowly came back to him. He was in a castle of some sort, naked in a bathtub, while the root of all evil prepared for something Not Good. Death--"You can call me Oberon"--had done something to him. He couldn't remember how he got here, didn't even know where here was. The last thing he remembered was waking up to find Heero hovering above him. That had probably been whenever it happened--whatever it was.  
  
To comfort himself, Duo started humming Heero's Song. Over the last few weeks--since he put a name to the song--Duo had begun humming it whenever he felt upset or angry or stressed. Which was to say, almost constantly. He had never really figured out the words, though, they always seemed to slip through his mind whenever he thought he grapsed them. They seemed to have something to do with creation and love and hate. Normal tragic romance crap, but he loved it. It was all he had left of his soulmate. That and the thing over at some sort of table lighting candles.  
  
Oberon looked over at Duo. There seemed to be some sort of spark in his eyes--understanding of song, maybe?--but it was probably just the flicker from the lights. Oberon didn't know the song. Only Duo and Heero did. Unless...unless maybe Heero could hear him?  
  
Duo knew it was impossible, Heero himself had told Duo many times--past Duo's were pretty slow on the uptake; he was this time around, also, if he wanted to speak the unadulterated truth--that when he was taken over, for lack of a better word, he could never hear what was going on in the outside world. He could see, but never hear.  
  
Which meant that Heero could see everything that was going on at the moment. Why wasn't he doing anything? He had always said he would protect Duo with his life if he had to. Well, here Duo was, about to die--or something worse than death--and Heero wasn't even trying to do anything. Then it his Duo: Heero didn't know who he was. As far as Heero knew, Duo was just some former classmate, some unnamed somebody in the hoards of deaths Heero had thus far been forced to witness (Duo knew that at any time, Heero could choose not to watch the doings of Oberon, but he also knew tht Heero would always choose to watch. It was the honor of the thing.). Duo needed to somehow let Heero know who he was. But how?  
  
And a plan formed in Duo's mind. Heero couldn't hear--so he couldn't hear Duo's humming, which would be a dead giveaway of who he was, as only Heero and Duo knew that particular song--but he could see. That meant if did something that only he would do--something that only Danyer, possibly would do--then Heero would know it was him.  
  
Duo didn't know what he expected Heero to do if and when he figured out who Duo was, Duo only knew that this might be his only oppurtunity to let Heero know he loved him. If only Oberon would turn around.  
  
There was humming--Heero knew that. And it sounded familiar--Heero knew that, too. But where was it coming from, and why could he hear it? Why now, when Death was about to do something horrible to that boy (was his name Duo? Heero couldn't quite remember, but he thought it might be.) would he finally be able to hear as well as see while inside his prison.  
  
Heero had not written the song being hummed. He had merely been the one to put it to music--for the sake of authenticity. It was a telling of the curse of the Riders--and thus the Elements--and the circumstances surrounding that curse. But the person--if it was a person--humming it didn't seem to know any of the words. Heero knew the words--he knew them in every language known to man, faery, demon, and beyond. Of course, it sounded prettier in some languages than in others--Heero was partial to the chants of the Vanuli Niamos.  
  
"In the beginning, there were none. Then Earth was created, and there was one. He was the First. Fire, Water, Air, and Spirit followed. One became two, two became three, three became four, and four became five. They were the Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth, respectively. They were name the Elements. All was right with the five, for a time. They went forth and procreated, creating species upon species different from them, yet at the same time, the same.  
  
"Then the bad men came--They Who Rode the Horses. One of them, the First of They Who Rode, fell in love with the Fifth of the Elements and demanded that she love him back. She refused him. She loved everyone and everything equally. She could not give him special treatment This angered the First of They Who Rode--the Riders--and he begged her to change her mind. The Fifth did not change. Three times he offered, three times she refused.  
  
"They Who Rode--like the Elements--had powers unimaginable. But unlike the Elements, The Rider's powers had a dark tinge to them. The third time the Fifth spurned the First of They Who Rode, he let loose his power, the power of Death. His horrible, awful magic killed the Fifth, extinguishing the lives of the other Elements along with her, all before their twenty-fifth year.  
  
"The All--the combination of the God and Goddess--saw what The First of They Who Rode had done and was horrified. The All knew that the First's brothers--while not directly responsible for the attack--had known of it and could have stopped it. The All, in Its infinite wisdom, punished the Riders for their actions--or, inactions, as the case may be.  
  
"The punishment was thus stated: 'In the time before time, in the place before history, the world before humanity, a great evil was done. Those who performed the act were banished, sent away from this world, in order to protect it. Those the act was performed against would be their keepers, the only beings protecting this world and others from the great evil of the Riders. Always dying before their twenty-fifth birthday, the Elements shall travel--a new destination every year and a day--the world, closing the gateway between our world and theirs.  
  
"Four times, the Riders shall have a chance to redeem themselves. Four times, the Elements will be reduced to four, the Element Spirit doubling with one of the others. Each time, the Riders shall inhabit the bodies of the four remaining Elements. Their actions will determine their fate. Should they choose to atone for their actions, at the end of one year and one day, the Riders will be given their own bodies and allowed to return to our world. But should they choose to spread their evil like a contagion, the Element cohabiting with Spirit shall destroy them.  
  
"The fourth and final time, if they choose to continue in their ways, they will be utterly annihilated, never to be seen or heard from again."  
  
Heero stared out of the visor--Oberon had turned around and Heero saw that it was Duo humming the song, which admittedly, did not a very good song make, at least not when translated into English. But how did Duo know that song? Even if he was only humming it, he still obviously knew a little about it. Where did his knowledge come from. Only a few people knew of it- -himself, his brothers, his sister, Rhys, and his soulmate. And Duo was obviously not any of those people. Was he?  
  
Duo scrunched up his face as he thought of how to let Heero know who he was. Oberon had turned around, so here was his chance. He just didn't know what to do!  
  
"Get out of the tub and dry off," Oberon commanded. Not having anything better to do--and not wanting the Rider to know that he was free of whatever spell he'd put on Duo earlier--Duo did as he said. Oberon brandished a large knife--it was called an athame, Rhys had said once. "Step into the circle."  
  
Duo eyed the circle to which Oberon motioned. It looked to be made of blood. Not a very comforting picture for Duo. He stepped in anyway.  
  
"Don't do this," Duo said, trying to keep the pleading out of his voice, but not succeeding completely. He didn't want to die, but he didn't want to die without Heero knowing who he was more. Death, he could take. Heero not knowing him, he couldn't.  
  
"It won't hurt that much," Oberon said, raising the athame over his head. "And it'll all be over soon, anyway."  
  
Oberon swung the knife down.  
  
"No!" Heero screamed. He didn't know if Duo was who he thought he was--if Heero could really be fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to have his soulmate brought right before him--but he couldn't stand the thought of Duo dying. There had been too much death. Something let go in Heero--or maybe something got let in--and the walls in the Black Room splintered. For the first time in months, Heero could see light not provided by Oberon's eyes. Inflamed by this, Heero gathered all the strength adn concentration he could. The he pushed.  
  
"I won't let you hurt him!"  
  
Everything went white. He was back in control of his body. Heero felt the descent of the knife and halted his arm. Duo was safe.  
  
"Duo?" he asked, trying to audibly confirm this miracle. It worked. The words came out of his mouth, just as if he had always been in control. Duo looked at him curiously; he had dropped to the floor when Oberon had swung the athame, and it was weird to look down at him. "Duo, are you okay?"  
  
Duo nodded once and stood up, towering over Heero. "Heero?" he asked. His voice sounded small, a sound that should never come from one so small. It was Heero's time to nod, so he did.  
  
Duo swept Heero up into a bone-crushing hug. Heero allowed this for a moment before making Duo let him go. Even after Duo set Heero back on the ground, his hands still wrapped around Heero's forearms.  
  
"Prove it to me," Heero said after Duo had set him down. "Prove to me that you're who I think you are. Tell me how you know the song." Heero desperately hoped that Duo could--and would.  
  
"You told me the song, after you told me how I was created," Duo said. Heero's hopes rose at the words. "I was created from you--your body, your magic, and your soul."  
  
Heero's spirits soared at that. This was Duo. This was Danyer.  
  
"It's really you," Heero said, his eyes filling with tears. He brought his hand up to cup Duo's cheek, as if he was afraid that Duo might disappear. The truth was, he very well might. Anything could happen now. "Will you-- will you kiss me? Please?"  
  
Heero knew his insecurities were getting the better of him. Everything was all right now. He had his soulmate, he'd defeated the Riders--quite easily, too--everything was over. The God and Goddess wouldn't take it from him now, would they? Surely, they weren't that cruel.  
  
Duo bent his head to kiss Heero, and Heero felt a tug in the pit of his stomach. The kiss was simple--chaste, even--but the tug wasn't. It felt like his entire stomach had been ripped out and replaced with Play-Doh. Heero didn't know exactly what it was, but he knew that there was no way it could be good. Apparently, the All could be that cruel.  
  
"Duo," Heero said, after Duo had pulled back from the kiss, "I want you to run, now. Run back to the mirror that brought you here, and jump through. And no matter what, don't look back."  
  
"I won't leave you," Duo insisted, but before he could stop Heero, he was being pushed out of the throne room. His clothes were thrust at him, and the door was shut.  
  
Heero turned away from the door, secure in the knowledge--or at least, hopeful--that Duo would do as he asked. He couldn't worry about it anymore. Heero'd figured out what the tug was--Oberon was trying to take control again. Of course, Heero now realized that when he'd regained control of his body, he hadn't killed Death, merely pushed him to the back. Much as Oberon did Heero all those months ago. To get rid of Oberon--and thus the other Riders--Heero would have to kill his body. Heero would have to die.  
  
Heero didn't want to die, but if he didn't, countless innocents would-- including Duo. If Heero didn't kill Oberon now, and Oberon regained command of his body, then Oberon would continue whatever spell he had been about to perform.  
  
Enraged by this, Heero stalked to the incomplete circle. It would take Earth to destroy the Riders. Blood was Earth. Heero still held the athame, so it was a simple matter to finish it. He cut himself across his hand and smeared the blood across the stone floor.  
  
"In the name of the Mother and the Father, I beseech you," Heero said. In the name of Spirit, I beseech you. In the name of Air, I beseech you. In the name of Water, I beseech you. In the name of Fire, I beseech you. In the name of Earth, I beseech you." Heero smeared the blood from his palm across his naked flesh. The stone beneath Heero began to shake. "I invoke thee, power of myself, seek out those with my immediate blood. Seek out my brother's, power of Earth, and destroy them." Heero's power converged in the center of his bloody palm. "I send you, magic. Destroy."  
  
There was no visible change when Heero said that, but he felt himself weaken. All of his magic left his body, leaving him as little more than a shell. The ground shook so hard that the stone dais was--almost--tilting back and forth.  
  
In a few seconds, anyone would looking in the room would not have seen Heero. They would, however, have seen a pile of ash in the spot Heero had been in. Around the castle, three more piles of ash could be found.  
  
Selune 


	37. Chapter 37

Disclaimer: Neither Gundam Wing nor its characters are mine. They are the property of their respective owners. Rhys (when he shows up) is not mine. He is the property of Laurel K. Hamilton. The Sidhe, the way I use them, are Laurel K. Hamilton's interpretation of the faeries from mythology. If I use Hands of Power, which I might, they are the creation of Laurel K. Hamilton, too.  
  
Pairings: 2x1 (eventually), 61, 51, implied 34, RH, H9H, others to be named  
  
Rating: R  
  
Warnings: AU, OOC, probably lemon, semi Duo- bastardization (don't worry, he gets over it), angst, NICE RELENA Lots of death, too, so maybe I should put DEATH FIC. Sorry I didn't put it sooner, but I just kind of got away with me.  
  
blahdenotes thought blah denotes flashback or Memory  
  
The Elements Chapter 37  
  
Heero woke and was blinded by white.  
  
"Where am I?" he said, then immediately regretted it. He knew very well where he was; he'd only been here countless--well, not countless, only 57,683--times before. He was in the White Room. The special waiting room reserved for the Elements until it was time for them to be reborn. Their own personal little Limbo.  
  
"You know damn well where you are, big brother, so suck it up and wake up," a feminine voice said. Heero knew only one--female--person who could put that amount of scorn and love into one sentence--Kali.  
  
"Is he okay?" Heero asked her, knowing that she, more than anyone, would know who he was talking about, as well as the answer to his question. He sat up, with help from Rafe, and waited for her to answer. Leif and Eric were somewhere behind Rafe, far enough back that Heero could see them, if he looked hard enough.  
  
Kali didn't respond. She opened her mouth, but then closed it, quickly. She had a sort of grimace on her face; every time she opened her mouth to speak, she shut it, as if afraid bugs were going to fly in. Or out.  
  
"Is he okay?" Heero repeated. "Is Duo okay? Did he get out safely?" Heero stood up, agitated. If Kali wouldn't answer such a simple question, then it must be bad. Duo might even be dead.  
  
Kali bit her lip--something she did when she was nervous, which Heero had always found to be endearing, but now was just annoying--but she didn't turn away from Heero. In fact, she turned towards him more, and held his forearm. She looked into his eyes, trying to tell him something. Heero knew that she was only trying to comfort him, but the only comfort he could accept would have to come in the form of words, not touches.  
  
"Please, tell me," he whispered to her, and the slight inclination of her head told him that she would.  
  
"He's not dead," Kali said, "but he is by no means 'okay.' He's--well, I'll just show you." Kali walked over to the television--much like there was a viewing apparatus in the Black Room, there was one in the White Room; it now looked like a television, keeping up with modern technology--and turned it to the station labeled "Duo Maxwell."  
  
Heero pushed away his concerned brothers--they had crowded around him as soon as they understood what he wanted to know, and what the outcome could mean to him--and watched Duo.  
  
Apparently, Duo hadn't been able to get to the mirror that would have taken him back to the mirror. Either that, or he had chosen not to go, just in case Heero came back. Knowing Duo--rather, knowing Danyer and all that Duo had been previously--Heero was more inclined to say that it was the latter instead of the former.  
  
Duo was currently outside of the now-ruined castle, crying. He sat half naked in the grass while the castle smoldered in the background. Duo wept into his hands, looking for all the world that he'd just lost his dog, his best friend, and his girl all at once. Which, Heero realized, wasn't all that far from the truth. Well, except for the dog thing. Neither of them had ever been into Master/Pet type deals.  
  
Heero tore his eyes from the screen; he couldn't bear to watch Duo torture himself like that. He just couldn't.  
  
"Well, that won't do. That won't do at all," Kali said from somewhere to his right. Heero couldn't be bothered to be confused by this, though under ordinary circumstances were random mutterings were curious. "The two of you just found each other again. You can't be apart yet. That is unacceptable."  
  
"I agree completely," Heero said, his eyes still carefully avoiding the TV screen. He wanted to see Duo, but not like that. He wanted to be able to touch him, to hold him and caress him, the next time he saw him. "But what can we do about it. Kill him?"  
  
Kali smiled at that, a smile that made Heero's stomach hurt and his heart soar. They were going to do something bad, but it was going to be worth it.  
  
"Of course we're not killing him, sweetie," Kali said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Killing him would do no good; you two wouldn't be together again, just dead in two different places. You know that as well as I do. No, I think that, instead of bringing him to us, we'll just all go to him."  
  
Heero's head snapped up. He wasn't sure if he'd heard right. Was Kali suggesting that they go back down to earth? Was that even possible? And if so, for how long? Heero didn't know how they could go to Duo--the dead had White Rooms for a reason, and that reason was that the people in charge liked knowing where they were. They would get into a lot of trouble if they just up and left. But if it was for Duo--for Danyer--Heero would do anything.  
  
"Yep," Kali said. "All we gotta do is go through that screen, and we'll end up wherever it's turned to. Believe me."  
  
Heero didn't quite believe her, but he was willing to do it. Heero took a deep breath and stepped into the television. Dimly, he felt his siblings follow.  
  
The five of them stepped out into the forest at Duo's back. Duo was facing the castle, so he couldn't see them, and he couldn't feel their presence.  
  
"What do we do now?" Heero asked Kali, as there was obviously more to her plan than just showing up.  
  
"Now, all we need are some bodies," Kali said, twirling a piece of her hair in between her fingers. "You can grow them--you can grow anything. After you do that, I'll just put us in the bodies, and we'll be as good as new. Better even."  
  
"Won't we get in trouble for this?" Rafe, who'd been quiet up 'til then, asked. "I mean, are we allowed to do this?"  
  
"Probably not," Kali answered, "but won't it be worth it to spend all that time with Rhys that you otherwise would not be able to--after all, he did survive; the only one left standing after the nymphs were through. If we don't do this now, you know that it'll be at least sixteen years before you can hold him in your arms again. Rhys doesn't do pedophilia, and it'll take at least that long for you to be old enough to be in his bed."  
  
"Well, in that case--Heero, what are you waiting for, a blue moon?" Rafe said.  
  
Heero sighed and went to work.  
  
Duo heard a noise--not an uncommon occurrence in the forest, but still, in the last few months, he'd learned that nothing was usually what it seemed-- and looked up.  
  
"Who's there?" he called out. His voice hitched, and he cursed himself for it. Heero would never be that weak. Heero was so strong, always doing what was right--except for that one time, and even that was probably necessary. Heero'd made the ultimate sacrifice, and here Duo was, weeping over what he'd lost. What had been done to him. Heero had died.  
  
Duo didn't realize he was speaking aloud until he hard a gruff laugh behind him.  
  
"I didn't stay dead for long, did I? Guess I never did know just when to quit, a now-familiar voice said. Duo'd spent months listening to that voice in his Memories--the depth and tone changed, but it was always undeniably Heero.  
  
Duo turned around, startled beyond belief and not quite sure that it wasn't just his ears playing tricks on him. But then, his eyes would've had to be fucked up, too, because there, standing before him, was a moss-covered Heero Yuy.  
  
As far as Duo could tell, there wasn't a scratch on him. That couldn't be right. After Heero had kicked Duo out of the throne room, there had been a massive earthquake. Thankfully, Duo had been in the doorway of one of the rooms that hadn't gotten hit that much, but most of the castle had been destroyed. After the shock was over, Duo'd gone back to the throne room and forced open the door. In the middle of the room, there was pile of ash- -it could only have been Heero. Other than the obvious destruction, it was the only difference. So, how could Heero go from a pile of ash to exactly how he looked before?  
  
"Is it really you?" Duo asked, standing up so he wouldn't have to look at the Heero-like thing. If it really was Heero, it would be easier to drag him off and make passionate love to him if he was already standing. If it wasn't Heero, it would be much easier to run away as fast as he could-- though if it wasn't Heero, and it wanted him dead, Duo probably couldn't run fast enough to get away.  
  
"Yeah, it's me. In the flesh," Heero said. He ran his hands down his chest, peeling off some of the moss. He held it above his face and stared at it in what could only be described as reverence. "In the new flesh. It's soft, like a baby's. Never thought I could have skin this soft."  
  
That was enough to convince Duo that it really was Heero--of course, unless it sprouted wings and a horn, he was ready to believe, maybe even then. In a matter of seconds, Duo was racing toward Heero. He reached his beloved and scooped him up, embracing him tighter than he ever had before. A thought flittered through his mind. He really is soft like a baby. I wonder how long that'll last.  
  
"What happened? How did you get back? To me?" Duo asked after putting Heero down. He held Heero's waist in a death grip--just light enough that he wouldn't hurt him--afraid that if he let go that Heero would disappear. That a short, green goblin of some sort would pop out of the woodwork, yell "Just kidding, ha, ha!" and snatch Heero away.  
  
"It doesn't really matter," Heero said, bringing his arms up to hug Duo's neck. Apparently--judging by how hard he squeezed--Heero held the same sentiment of the goblin-yelling-snatching thing. "All that matters is that we're here, now, today. Maybe forever."  
  
Duo smiled and hugged Heero tighter. Forever sounded just about perfect.  
  
Kali smiled as she saw her brother with his soulmate. "They look really great together, don't they?" she asked her other brothers.  
  
"Yeah, they do," Rafe said, coming up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder, "but where do we go from here?"  
  
"Now, you go through that mirror--I think it's still standing--and you go get your own soulmate," Kali said. "The nymphs attacked where he was staying, but he survived. For some reason, they didn't bother him. Something about not wanting to kill the last surviving member of a species. The others, though, they--" Kali smiled at Rafe and waved for him to go. "Go on, go. Get your ass to your mate; I'm sure he really misses it."  
  
Rafe took off towards the castle. He didn't look back the entire way, but Kali hadn't missed the beginnings of a blush.  
  
"Nice. Subtle," Eric said, coming from the left of Kali. He was smiling as he said it, though, so she knew he wasn't mad. "But really, where do we go from here? Do we still die at twenty-five? After all, it was part of the curse put on the Riders, so logic dictates that if they're gone, so is that. So, if we don't die then, will we live forever? What do we do now?"  
  
"I'm not sure,' Kali said, grabbing Eric's and Leif's--who had followed Eric over like a puppy dog--hands. She brought them together, and when they clasped one another, she let go. She nodded her head then, figuring it all out. "First, we help put this world back together. There was a lot of damage--more than either of you saw individually--and it's going to take much work to get it back to its former glory. Then, we love. We love our families. We love our friends. We love our soulmates and strangers on the streets. We love anyone we meet, or don't meet. Or that and then help. Either way. It doesn't really matter which happens first."  
  
Kali walked toward the castle, leaving her two brothers holding hands, one brother running for his mate, and the other--the one who saved them all with his sacrifice--holding onto the one he died for. She wondered what would happen with them, but she knew that, whatever it was, they would be great at it. Not because they were superpowerful Elements who could kick the ass of anyone who dared to cross them, but because they loved and were loved in return.  
  
The End  
  
Selune 


End file.
